graphic design for
architects
A manual for visual communication
written and designed by
karen lewis
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Karen Lewis
The right of Karen Lewis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by
her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Lewis, Karen (Karen Jane)
Graphic design for architects : a manual for visual communication / Karen Lewis.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Graphic arts—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Visual communication—Handbooks, manuals, etc.
3. Communication in architecture. I. Title.
NC997.L485 2015
741.602’472—dc23
2014033670
ISBN: 978-0-415-52260-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-52261-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73156-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Gotham Narrow
by Hoefler & Frere-Jones
Univers and News Gothic
by Linotype
Publisher’s Note:
This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the author.
graphic design for
architects
A manual for visual communication
written and designed by
karen lewis
THANK YOU
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book would not be possible without inspiration, creativity and support from many people.
INTERVIEWS
CONTRIBUTORS
ILLUSTRATIONS
Many thanks to those who
Thank you for the beautiful
Many thanks to the following
were interviewed for this book.
examples provided by:
students for their image skills:
Your insights and imagination
have enriched this project
tremendously.
Tobias Armborst
Luke Bulman
Daniel D’Oca
Nicholas Felton
Anne Filson
Janette Kim
Prem Krishnamurthy
William O’Brien Jr.
Michael Piper
Michael Rock
Scott Stowell
Georgeen Theodore
Benjamin Van Dyke
Kristy Balliet
Matthew Banton
Nicholas Castillo
Brandon Clifford
Aaron Frazier
Brian Haulter
Elijah Huge
Brian Koehler
Lisl Kotheimer
Kayle Langford
Michael Odum
Michael Piper
Frank Ruchala
Ben Flaute
Brian Koehler
Scott McLemore
Michael Odum
Cheyenne Vandervoorde
Many of my own projects in this
book involved the intellectual and
creative talents of my students,
as well as those of Matthew
Banton, Sean Burkholder and
Jason Kentner.
Matthew Storrie
Jessie Wilcox
EDITORIAL
Thanks to the entire Routledge/
Taylor & Francis team. Fran Ford’s
unflappable enthusiasm and for
first seeing the potential of this
project. Laura Williamson for
her thoughtful guidance, Emma
Gadsden for her focus and Grace
Harrison for her encouragement
in seeing it through until the end.
Special thanks to the thoughtful
Tomas Campe for his keen
typographic attention.
4
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
INSTITUTIONS
COMMUNITIES
PEOPLE
The Knowlton School of
Before I interned at the National
This book first began over
Architecture at Ohio State
Building Museum and the Bruce
crackers and conversations with
University has provided
Museum, I was introduced to
the incandescently brilliant
academic and financial support
exhibition design during a lecture
Wallis Miller.
to explore this book’s themes
at Wellesley College. I’m proud
and trajectories. I’m grateful to
to be part of an institution that
For 15 years, Julia McMorrough
my colleagues for their curiosity
opens minds as well as hearts.
has been an inspiration and model
and interest. Many thanks to
for what being an architect can be.
directors Ann Pendleton-Julian
Icon Nicholson changed the way
and Michael Cadwell for their
I work as a designer. I’m forever
John McMorrough has provided
support and encouragement;
grateful for the people I met there,
support, inspiration and guidance
Beth Blostein and Jane Amidon
especially for Alex Tween.
at every stage. He is a steadfast
for their insights and enthusiasm.
teacher, mentor, critic and friend.
Many thanks to Jeffrey Kipnis
Developing my thesis at the
for his deep attention and
Harvard University Graduate
All of my work is better when
thoughtful comments.
School of Design opened worlds
Matthew Banton is involved.
I’m still uncovering. A lifetime of
Many thanks to University of
thanks to Sarah Whiting and Ron
Jason Kentner, my dearest friend
Kentucky for their support.
Witte for their support and mutual
and design partner. You guard my
David Biagi, David Mohney and
curiosity, and to John Stilgoe for
dreams and visions.
Michael Speaks supported this
his deep and inspired attention.
project in its earliest development.
This project is dedicated to
my family—Mom, Dad, Woo.
All roads are easier with you.
5
INTRODUCTION
PRESENTING TO AN AUDIENCE
8
ARCHITECTS FOR GRAPHIC DESIGN
Essay by Karen Lewis
8
Conversation with 2x4
10
Michael Rock, Principal
PRESENTING YOURSELF
70
COMPETITIONS
Structuring the argument
Scales of information
Layering information
Organizing images
Mixing drawing types
Conversation with studio DUBS
72
74
76
78
80
82
Michael Piper, Principal
16
PORTFOLIOS
Getting started
Overview flowchart
Printing techniques
Binding options
Cover options
Organizing content
Diagramming structure
Page typologies
Pacing and structure
Page grids
Typeface organization
Conversation with WOBJ
18
20
22
24
26
28
32
34
38
40
46
Conversation with Benjamin Van Dyke
Graphic Designer
6
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
Conversation with Interboro Partners
88
90
92
94
96
Tobias Armborst, Partner
Daniel D’Oca, Partner
Georgeen Theodore, Partner
50
William O’Brien Jr, Principal
54
RESUMES
Organizational overview
Page structures
Baseline grids
Nesting information
Mixing typefaces
86
PRESENTATIONS
Rhetorical structures
Compacting messages
Structuring color
Words to images
56
58
60
62
64
66
102
BOOKS
Printing technology
Book ergonomics
Pacing and sequence
Page grids
Page structure
Setting type
Typographic mechanics
Conversation with Thumb
Luke Bulman, Principal
104
106
108
110
112
114
116
118
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ARCHITECTURAL COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION AS ARCHITECTURE
122
182
DIAGRAMS
Formal diagrams
Explaining process
Clarifying the components
Phenomenological explanations
Information diagrams
Color production
Conversation with All of the Above
134
SIGNAGE AND WAYFINDING
Clarifying experience
Signage systems
Organizing spaces
Walls as communication
Structure of signage
Landscape signage
136
Conversation with Open
124
126
128
130
132
Janette Kim, Principal
184
186
188
190
192
194
196
Scott Stowell, Principal
142
200
INFORMATION GRAPHICS
Pie charts
Types of data
Bar charts
Pie versus bar charts
Presenting numbers
Flow charts
144
146
148
150
152
154
SUPER GRAPHICS
What makes them super?
Concealing the surface
Supergraphic as brand
Urban space graphics
Conversation with Project Projects
202
204
206
208
210
Prem Krishnamurthy, Principal
Conversation with Filson and Rohrbacher 156
Anne Filson, Principal
217
CREDITS
162
218
MAPS
Coordinating information
Layering information
Levels of specificity
Enhancing relationships
Aggregating marks
Hierarchy and detail
Conversation with Nicholas Felton
INDEX
164
166
168
170
172
174
176
Graphic Designer
7
ESSAY
ARCHITECTS FOR GRAPHIC DESIGN
KAREN LEWIS
Architects describe their work through drawings, images
graphically communicates design’s conceptual and intellectual
and models. Increasingly, architects use other forms of
framework. For example, in the MoMA PS1 Young Architects
representation to describe their ideas. Diagrams, information
Program, design teams produce a range of representations
graphics, books, posters, websites, competition boards and
to explain their proposal. Traditional orthographic drawings have
digital presentations are part of an expanded vocabulary of
been augmented—if not entirely replaced—by renderings,
representation techniques. While the topic of these drawings
diagrams and animations. Work is not pinned on the wall
is architecture, the tools and techniques used to present them
cohesively but presented via slide–by–slide presentations of single
are expertise associated with graphic design. Deep disciplinary
images and videos. Recently, too, design teams prepare project
knowledge is required to produce architecture; however,
books for each juror. The intellectual shift away from traditional
additional knowledge from graphic design is necessary
drawings towards an expanded vocabularly of representations
to present architecture.
that include presentations, diagrams, renderings and books—
further two–dimensional representations of an architectural
More and more architects are responsible for images
project—has become part of an architect’s spatial strategies. These
that explain the effects of architecture, be they financial,
expanded representation techniques are foundational to how an
organizational, environmental or social. As the architecture
architectural proposal is imagined. The graphic presentation of
profession becomes more specialized, workflow increasingly
architecture is not an additional lens of expertise applied to the
complex and design expertise further focused, architects are
presentation of work; it is essential to the way architecture is
required to produce a wider range of drawings to explain the
conceived, developed and projected. Graphics are not about
impacts of their work. It is common for architects to produce
the addition of further, unaffiliated expertise layered upon those
a broad range of representations to communicate with clients,
of architecture—to do so is an anathema—but it is to recognize
project consultants or public constituencies. The architect’s
the relationship between representation and the work itself.
graphic output is no longer limited to two-dimensional
Contemporary representation techniques are imbued within
representations of three–dimensional space, but also includes
architecture’s spatial and organizational techniques. These
drawings of organization, structure and relationships across
comprise the same lineage of spatial structures that guide
building materials, finance and other consultancies. These
and shape its development.
images, prepared by the architect as part of the design
process, represent the organization of interrelated decisions.
Architects—indeed, all professions—need to understand the
foundations of graphic design in order to present articulately
As architecture expands its reach of visual services, these
information. Visual communication is an increasingly significant
methods of structuring and organizing space move beyond
part of professional communication. Architects in particular can
that of client–designer relationships. The way work is presented
benefit from this knowledge to enhance representation skills, but
8
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
INTRODUCTION
also to facilitate better relationships with consultants. Every
and wide ramps directing users to prominent spaces, the
building, landscape or urban center eventually interacts with
unfamiliar visitor immediately proceeds up small, narrow
graphic designers. Having knowledge of graphic design’s
staircases to arrive at the second floor. At the beginning of every
potential can better position architects to communicate and
semester ad hoc signage litters the building walls, attempting
collaborate with their consultants. In the same way architects
to direct visitors towards the main thoroughfares. These signs
have engaged affiliated professions such as structural engineering
are unproductive. Printed (or hand-drawn) on single sheets of
and landscape architecture, architects can and should foster
white letter-sized paper, the small rectangles disappear within
similar creative collaborations with graphic designers. Instead of
the grey, concrete, 20-foot entry spaces. Located haphazardly,
adding graphic designers to the final stages of a building’s
the signs fall out of the user’s view. As such, these graphic
construction to add signage, for example, graphic designers
messages do not correlate to the building’s space.
should be included much earlier in the design process. To do so
allows both the architecture and building graphics to share similar
conceptual agendas. 2x4 and OMA’s collaboration at the Illinois
Architects do not need to become graphic designers; we need
to understand better the expertise and techniques of graphic
Institute of Technology McCormick Tribune Center rested upon
design. Expanding our graphic representation skills allows
a shared intellectual query surrounding perception. Koolhaas’s
communication with broader audiences, clients, and research
essay “Junk Space” was first published in ANY 27, which 2x4
collaborators and facilitates disciplinary knowledge across
designed. This shared question of visual perception stimulated
related fields. Architecture also needs to recognize the spatial
the building’s graphic treatment. Walls host information, using
practice shared with graphic design. A closer relationship
graphic design as a way to both encode and obfuscate the surface.
between the two disciplines will enhance the intelligence of
At the McCormick Center the building’s graphics are part of a
both fields. Understanding how architecture is visually spatial,
shared spatial project between the graphic designer and architect.
how graphic designers design space, and how the two disciplines
can imbue the other with further intelligence can only increase
Conversely, architecture without graphic design can produce
each discipline’s spatial knowledge. Architects are not trained as
unintended spatial effects. Scoggin and Elam’s Knowlton School
graphic designers and its important for the discipline to recognize
of Architecture at Ohio State University is a building with clear
its limitations. But increasing our awareness of graphic design
spatial hierarchies. However, its unconventional use of ramps,
techniques will allow architects to share questions about space,
walls and materials makes navigation confounding for a user
navigation, surface and perception with graphic designers.
accustomed to the spatial strategies of traditional campus
To include graphic design and graphic designers within our
buildings. Users entering the building looking for the main
discipline expands opportunities for spatial invention.
auditorium, Room 250, immediately search for access to the
second floor. Ignoring the spatial cues provided by main volumes
9
CONVERSATION
ORGANIZATION
2X4
MICHAEL ROCK, CREATIVE DIRECTOR / NEW YORK, NY
1
MICHAEL ROCK is a founding
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
partner and Creative Director at 2x4
You’ve been crafting the Graphic
model-making, students’ work is almost
and Director of the Graphic Architecture
Architecture Project at the Graduate School
exclusively graphic. Critiques are centered
design. In school, with the exception of
Project at the Columbia University
of Architecture at Columbia University.
in presentations in the form of boards
Graduate School of Architecture,
What is the relationship between
and Power Point presentations. Very
Planning and Preservation. At 2x4,
graphic design and architecture?
he leads a wide range of projects for
little of the work actually becomes built
form but there is hardly any discussion
Prada, Nike, Kanye West, Barneys New
MICHAEL ROCK: I don’t think so
York, Harvard and CCTV. His writing on
much about graphic design benefiting
design has appeared in publications
architecture; more often I think that
with the statement: architecture is born
of, and dies as, graphic design. As almost
about the material quality of that work.
I started the Graphic Architecture Project
worldwide. He is the recipient of the
architecture is often a form of graphic
1999/2000 Rome Prize in Design
design. A significant percentage of the
all the work before a building is built is
from the American Academy in Rome.
work of architecture is two–dimensional
graphic, the building lives on in the form of
10
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
representation—drawings, renderings,
media coverage, photographs, essays, etc.
diagrams, collages—and texts. It’s
We only visit a miniscule percentage of the
basically the ingredients in graphic
world’s buildings; the rest we know through
INTRODUCTION
2
3
pictures, blogs, books, articles. Your
graphic material to create a certain effect,
understanding of architecture is primarily
assembling images on pages to a specific
For example, I’ve been teaching a class on
through the graphic, not the spatial.
end—to evoke a design, a building or a
diagrams. I use Koolhaas’s definition: the
concept. Manipulating two–dimensional
diagram is the reduction of an idea down
classes on the sub–genres of architecture.
GDA: Graphic design programs teach
objects on paper, on screens and in space
to its most fundamental contradiction. The
typography, layout, color theory. Those
is the operation of graphic design.
diagram is about juxtaposition. Before
topics aren’t typically covered in a
you have a building you have a diagram
traditional architecture representation
GDA: What is the subject of the Graphic
that addresses issues of program, flows,
course. From a curricular standpoint,
Architecture Project?
narratives. The diagram is the most
MR: GAP focuses on all of the graphic
We try to look at how the diagram may
inform the design process.
how is architecture graphic design?
primitive representation of the process.
MR: Architects make drawings, renderings,
issues in, on, around and about
books, diagrams, all as forms of persuasion.
architecture. We look at presentation and
We did another class looking at
The subject is architecture, but the form
how ideas are broadcast, how content is
display, the electronic display as a
of it is graphic. In a way the subject isn’t
injected in space, how media interacts
hyper–specialized building material. If the
that important. It’s the composition of
with form. I’ve been working on a series of
diagram is the earliest act, display is the
11
CONVERSATION
ORGANIZATION
latest thing, the activation of the surface.
Wallpaper is definitely not architectural. It’s
MR: At the student center at IIT the walls
What kind of material is a display? Is it a
a low form of decoration that serves no
are just gypsum dividers, the roof is
window? Is it a wall? It’s a prominent part
structural or material function. It is utterly
supported by a steel I–beam grid that is
of many buildings entire facades are given
superficial. Since wallpaper is not
disengaged from the walls. Right about
over to it and as a material it’s one of the
architecture, it must be about something
the time we were working on the project
most expensive. But we don’t think about
else: class, taste, image, representation
with OMA, Koolhaas was writing “Junk
it materially. It’s a hybrid form.
and meaning. Wallpaper, it would seem,
Space” that ended up in ANY 27 (2000)
is an admission of an architectural failure.
which we designed. (Later I told him we
GDA: You make the point earlier that
We took this idea of superficial very
were influenced by the essay, and the idea
graphic design doesn’t add value to
seriously and tried to interrogate what
of IIT as a kind of junk space, and he noted
architecture because architecture is
it meant. The very fact the wallpaper
he was thinking about Pompeii and some
graphic design. However, at the scale
is temporary, that it changes every six
of the deepest, most solid architectural
of a wall in a building, it sounds as if
months or so, creates the condition
issues.) At IIT we were thinking about the
you’re saying that graphic design does
wherein you’re always referring to your
walls as superficial partitions, surfaces onto
add value to architecture. Is that true?
own superficiality. And because it’s
which we applied coatings to give them
temporal, wallpaper can do a very specific,
meaning. So a fancy wall is a gold wall, a
MR: In economics, if you buy an egg you
detailed job. It can be targeted and
rough room has a sheetrock wall. The walls
get an egg. But if you do something to the
contextual in a way the building cannot.
were signs that coded spaces and the
egg it’s worth more. You’ve given form to
The Prada wallpaper took a rhetorical
project was a catalogue of graphic devices,
it so now it is a better product than it was
form in that we were always engaging
all of these different ways to change the
before. Graphic design does that, too. You
the space itself—the presence, opacity,
meaning of spaces based on appliqué.
have space and you have walls and graphic
the fact of the wall—as well as content
design does something to those things that
related to the meaning of the space, that
adds value to them. It’s the same thing
is its about fashion, luxury, Italianness,
far and close, deep and shallow, etc. They
with text. You get raw, underdeveloped
bourgeois culture, shopping, etc. We’re
are all embedded in the spaces around
The graphic elements of IIT were about
always trying effect vision in a new way:
text then you shape it, you add value to it,
always trying to enhance the breadth
the student center. The building holds all
and now the text has the qualities of the
of the wall, its thickness, flatness,
of the effects that you experience if you
book and you’ve added value onto the text
impenetrability, or we’re scheming to make
approach it from a distance and it engages
itself. You can think about that in spatial
the wall disappear. If you think about those
you as you move through the space. That’s
terms, too, that you add design so that it
formal challenges—and this is where it
a project we’ve been trying to keep going
adds value to space.
ties in specifically to graphic design—the
on our own for a long time.
subject of the work is always the problem
GDA: How does graphic design operate
itself. In this case the wallpaper is only
GDA: How do buildings communicate?
at the scale of a wall?
a millimeter thick, it literally has almost
Mark Wigley speaks about the relationship
no Z–dimension. So depth is always an
between architecture and words in his
MR: The wall is a condition in the way the
illusion. It can have perspectival depth,
introduction to Multiple Signatures. But
page is a condition. Walls are facts that
conceptual depth, intellectual depth,
you address how images, rather than
you’re constantly working against. They
but its inherent flatness is the essential
words, communicate. How do you grapple
are solid, they hold things up, they are
formal, graphic problem. Metaphorically,
with communication beyond words?
opaque. They have a series of qualities
wallpaper is the same as graphic design;
that always need to be grappled with.
we’re always trying to impose depth.
When we started the project at Prada
MR: I’ve been struggling with that because
when communication becomes too
Store in Soho by OMA, the idea of using
GDA: How were you experimenting with
blatant, too literal, it becomes a negative
wallpaper as a major gesture was a very
depth at the Illinois Institute of Technology
value to the building. It is compensatory.
loaded act for a work of a high architect.
(IIT) McCormick Student Center?
For example, the library is shaped like
12
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
INTRODUCTION
4
a gigantic book or the concert hall is
GDA: How has the design work of branding
shaped like a gigantic drum; everything
evolved in your practice?
is shaped like its program. Anytime
rules across their vast empires.) Over the
past few decades there has been a move
away from uniformity of visualization and
the built form becomes literal I find
MR: The idea of branding has drastically
toward a uniformity of voice. Designers
it diminished. Buildings may, however,
transformed in the last 25 years. When I
started to come to the conclusion that the
become brand devices as a residual
was studying graphic design it was called
goal of branding was the construction of a
part of a communication strategy; they
corporate identity and it involved creating
consistent personality, strong enough to be
become representative of a corporate
scalable, rational design systems that
modulated for different audiences. At the
or organizational ethos. We’re a daring
organized the visual material of an
same time, branding was picked up as a
organization, so our architecture should
organization or enterprise. The goal was to
major case study in business schools and
be daring too. The form is a statement
create a big manual that organized the
business journalists started to report on it.
of values. It’s an unusual thing. Everyone
logo, typeface, color system and the way
In the course of my career we have moved
from a condition in which no one had any
knows about Bilbao because they’ve
those things would be displayed. This was
seen representations of it. It’s even
design based in uniformity and rules. There
idea what design was, to it becoming a
spawned a theory: the so-called Bilbao
are lots of designers who have done that
ubiquitous subject. Now everyone is using
Effect. Frank Gehry has built a career
very successfully for a very long time. (You
branding as a lens through which
on the idea that his work immediately
could argue that both Imperial Rome and
everything is practiced. Every entity from
represents innovation and confidence.
the Han Dynasty created very specific rules
nations and global alliances down to local
about representation and broadcast those
schools and individuals are obsessed with
13
CONVERSATION
ORGANIZATION
5
6
reputation and voice are more valuable
valuable about itself. And that means you
GDA: What are the processes you use to
than all of its real estate, buildings, trucks,
make very specific types of decisions in
develop that type of abstract conversation?
bottle, ingredients, everything. So what
urban planning, transportation, everything.
are these things that make your brand? A
If you’re keeping that identity in mind it’s
MR: We spend a lot of time interviewing
brand is both an ideology and a planning
going to tell you about how people are
and talking to people, and just trying
tool. A brand vision provides a way to
going to live, move, zone your city. It’s a
to understand ourselves. But mostly it’s
evaluate how to move forward, to grow and
system about making design choices.
about creativity and imagination. It’s like
change. If you’re a city, and you’re trying
On the practical side we’ve seen big
we are creating a personality. We try to
to figure out how to develop, a brand gives
changes in our own projects. It used to
describe our clients’ companies the way
you a sense of how to organize zoning and
be that we started with a logo and some
you would tell me about someone you
program. It makes you aware of who you
colors. Now those things come very late
knew and I didn’t. You’d resort to a handful
are and what you’re about so that it helps
to the process. Almost all of our work now
of adjectives. What about a museum? You
you make planning decisions. Branding is
is about finding the core messages of an
can do the same thing. You can say it’s
about the future of things you’re going to
organization and understanding where
an open place, it’s totally unpretentious,
do rather than what you’re doing now. It’s
it’s going. How do they speak? What can
it’s dynamic, or grand, or intimate. What
about what you’re going
they say, credibly? Then we design stuff
kind of place it is? It’s the most refined,
to do next.
that supports that position. Logos are the
elegant place you’ve ever been, Don’t
It’s interesting to think about Austin,
third stage of the project. It’s very rare
go with your kids, ever. If you start to
Texas, which has a very specific feel to it.
for us to work with someone who says “I
describe an organization in the same way
Its slogan is “Keep Austin Weird.” That says
need a logo.” Now it’s about defining the
then it starts to give you a feeling of how
to me it’s a city that really knows what is
organization’s personality.
you should design for them, not just their
14
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
INTRODUCTION
7
stuff but their practices too. Because
person working at the gatehouse. “If this
GDA: I think architecture is about how we
now you’re designing a person more than
place is a world apart, how would you do
live, the design of systems, conditions and
you’re designing this abstract thing.
your job differently?” Maybe you shouldn’t
spaces that structure our lives.
have a gate. Maybe you walk up and have
GDA: It is hard for institutions to think
a more natural exchange. You start to think
MR: Well, then, branding is a form of
about their identities as having multiple
about the ways you do all of these jobs
architecture because it’s structuring a
voices, different forms of execution.
differently. Working from these kinds of
social engagement. Architecture structures
platforms, people tend to act differently.
social engagements in lots of different ways
MR: The hardest part is the internal part.
There are brands that do that really well.
and to that end, branding is the same thing
How do you get your workforce to think
Apple, for example. The Apple Store has
because it gives meaning to how we live.
the same way? Oftentimes when people
little to do with how the store looks. They
come to us, their staff is unclear about
train their staff really well. People act
what they should be doing. The first
towards you in a certain way that makes
stage is always the internal phase—how
you feel this is a special place.
does the idea of this institution affect the
way you do your work in this institution?
GDA: Is branding architecture?
We’ve been working recently with a huge
GRAPHIC PROJECTS
1: Prada Store, New York, NY
2–6: Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)
McCormick Student Center, Chicago, IL
botanical garden and we were talking
MR: That’s a really good question. I would
about this place as a heterotopia, a totally
have to think back as to what architecture
different world that mirrors but is set apart
is. What do you think architecture is?
7: Nike 100 Exhibition
from the real one. So, you then ask the
15
Page Intentionally Left Blank
presenting yourself
portfolios
OVERVIEW
GETTING STARTED
PORTFOLIOS CAN TAKE MANY FORMS. Knowing which form will work best for your needs
can be a complex set of questions—is this portfolio for getting a job or graduate school? How
will you produce your portfolio? Will the work be reviewed digitally or physically? And how
many pages should your portfolio include?
Context influences Curation
Production and Form are related
1 CONTEXT
2 PRODUCTION
3 CURATION
WHAT’S THE PORTFOLIO FOR?
Context can influence the final form your
portfolio will take. Consider one of the
typical portfolio scenarios:
WHY START WITH THIS?
How you’ll design, print and bind or
output your work puts useful technical
constraints on your portfolio design.
Graduate schools are interested in your
portfolio to show how you think visually.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
How will you print your portfolio?
Knowing this up front will establish
all other design decisions.
WHAT WORK TO SHOW?
Include projects that demonstrate your
ability to think visually and spatially—
studio, art, graphics and other artistic
work are good choices, especially if your
background in architecture is limited.
Employers want to see your
What is your budget? Number of
school work and your professional
pages, full bleeds and portfolio size
accomplishments. If you don’t have
can impact cost.
ideas so begin with work that shows
who you are as a designer. Use your
any office experience, demonstrate
THINGS TO CONSIDER
How many pages long should each
project be? Depends on the work.
More important than number of pages
is clarity and organization. A single,
well-composed page is preferable
to many cluttered pages.
your professionalism through a neat
What resources are available? Will
and organized portfolio.
you order your supplies online or do
What if you don’t have any
you want to be able to run to the office
architecture background at all? The
Academic appointments need to show
supply store if you run out of paper?
portfolio shows how you think visually,
your research, teaching and service
Knowing your own work habits can
so don’t shy away from examples from
efforts. Make sure to emphasize your
help make decisions. If you want to
other fields. Paintings from art seminars,
research and to separate clearly student
work to the last minute, you may not
diagrams from sports performances or
work from your own design projects.
want to rely on sending your portfolio
even biology lab observation reports can
to be printed online.
be excellent examples.
18
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PORTFOLIOS
Many architects think portfolio
design is just this phase
Lots of back and forth
Lots of back and forth
4 FORM
5 EDITING
6 IMPLEMENTATION
WHAT SHOULD IT LOOK LIKE?
A better question to ask is “What
should it feel like?” Bright and
white? Rigid and substantial? Soft
and flexible? How will the context—
graduate school, a professional job,
a teaching position—set up conditions
for the portfolio’s atmosphere?
WHAT IS THIS PHASE?
Editing is more than spell-check—it's
printing the portfolio out and looking
at it as a physical thing. During the
editing process you can see how photos
could change in size, how text should
better scale to the page and what parts
of the projects can be edited to make
your work clear.
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
Whether preparing your files to hand
to the printer, or getting your pages
back and deciding to crop them, the
final process of implementing your
design is exciting.
THINGS TO CONSIDER
Landscape versus portrait? When
opened, landscape-oriented portfolios
become super landscapes, which can
be hard to design. Portrait-oriented
pages have the potential for landscape
and portrait images.
THINGS TO PREPARE FOR
Work on the screen looks really
different than when it is printed.
Typefaces look gigantic and colors print
darker. Do a few test prints well before
your final design phase to make these
needed adjustments.
THINGS TO CONSIDER
Take your time putting your
portfolio together. It can take longer
than you think. Build in extra time to
your process to output, prepare and
organize your work.
Think about organization rather than
“graphic design,” as the guiding effort
Crop your pages before you make
for your portfolio. This will help you
scale decisions. Seeing extra white
from over-designing your portfolio.
space around a small portfolio printed
on a regular sheet of paper can
influence your perception.
19
ORGANIZATION
WHO WILL PRINT YOUR PORTFOLIO?
Qualified Professionals Me!
I like to outsource the technical stuff
DO YOU KNOW WHICH
PRO YOU’LL USE?
No
Yes
I want to safeguard each page
HAVE YOU WORKED
WITH THEM BEFORE?
No
Yes
DO YOU KNOW WHAT SIZE
YOUR PORTFOLIO WILL BE?
No
Yes
Most places store
RESEARCH YOUR OPTIONS
RESEARCH YOUR OPTIONS
Local copy shop. Find the
If you’re outsourcing things
one all of the architects use,
online send one test portfolio
not the chain brand available
to flush out any production
in every strip mall.
issues such as
Online provider. Selfpublishing services offer
printing and binding with
professional-looking results.
But be careful—student
projects can appear under
developed a monograph
print. Ironically, too, some
providers are known for
inconsistent printing quality.
portfolios in filing
cabinets, so don’t
go larger than the
typical 8.5" x 11."
full bleeds, transparency
and color density.
If you’re using a local
printer go introduce yourself.
STICK WITH
THE RULES
Meet the staff and explain
Are you applying to graduate school or
your project. They can offer
for a fellowship or internship? If they’ve
advice on file preparation,
made restrictions or specifications for
suggest paper and binding
your application size, follow these
techniques, and help make
specifications exactly. You don’t want
the process run more
to annoy anyone before you’ve even
smoothly.
been accepted!
List any known portfolio limits here:
Files that aren’t set up properly
are one of the most frequent
complaints from printers. If
your portfolio has full-bleed
images, make sure to set up
your file with full bleeds.
Portfolio thickness
# of projects
# of pages
Name on each page?
On the cover?
Anything else?
20
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PORTFOLIOS
CHECK YOUR PRINTERS’
SPECIFICATIONS
Can your printer print the
paper size you need to
make your portfolio?
Yes
No
DO YOU KNOW WHICH
PRINTER YOU’LL USE?
Yes
Huh?
RESEARCH YOUR OPTIONS
HOW MANY PORTFOLIOS
DO YOU NEED?
1–5
6–100
Hmmm… That’s a lot
of printing. If your
Inkjet. Easily found and
portfolio is many pages
Reconsider the portfolio size,
affordable. Beautiful color
long, you may want to
the type of printer you’ll use,
output but relatively slow
consider working with
or if a professional can help.
speed. Each page will take
a professional.
several minutes to print.
Will you be printing
double-sided pages?
Double-sided pages require
you to hand-feed the printer.
Color laser. If you have
No
Yes
access to a laser printer,
their output is fairly quick
and most have the ability to
It’s hard to align images
perfectly so avoid graphics
that wrap the page.
automatically print doublesided pages. Color quality
and image clarity isn’t as
high as an inkjet printer.
Do you want full bleeds?
No
Yes
You’ll need to print on paper
larger than your final portfolio
size and trim each page.
21
ORGANIZATION
OUTPUT
PRODUCING YOUR PORTFOLIO
THE WAY YOUR PORTFOLIO WILL BE PRODUCED—printed and bound or presented
digitally—can put useful constraints on how you’ll design your portfolio. Thinking of what
technologies you’ll use to produce the portfolio will help guide many other design decisions.
DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS
PRINTING IT YOURSELF
Submitting your portfolio to one graduate school
Do you want to work to the last minute? Try as we might,
as a physical submission, and to another as a digital
we often need every minute of time to get the design
file, can make things hectic. Streamline your efforts
right. If you know you’ll need to work to the last minute,
by considering a few things.
you’ll want to invest in your own inkjet printer and print
the pages yourself.
SPREADS TO SCREEN
In portrait orientation, output your
page spreads to fit on the screen.
=
portrait
portrait
screen
PAGE TO SCREEN
In landscape orientation, output
single pages to fit on the screen.
=
landscape 1
landscape 2
screen
BREAK INTO SCREENS
Break apart a presentation into linear,
singular screen images.
=
competition board
22
multiple screens
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
USEFUL HINTS
• Try to use readily available resources.
• If you’re committed to ordering special
paper, order three times what you think
you’ll need.
• Test a few pages on different settings.
Each page can take up to three minutes to
print, so account for printing time
when designing portfolio production.
PORTFOLIOS
CROP IT OUT
NOTES ON:
FULL
BLEEDS
1 GATHER TOOLS
1
29
30
You will need the following:
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4
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3
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27
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2
• cu ing ma
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• s raig
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5
dg rul r
i
or
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6
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r f ra l
• knif or ano
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a ing
r
of
In order to guarantee a full bleed,
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10
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6
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8
10
and
r rimm r
set the portfolio file with a minimum
11
5
ld a
2
12
3
4
of 3–6mm bleeds. This bleed margin
1
gives printers flexibility in case
trimming and crop marks don’t line
up precisely. With a bleed there’s
extra image to hide any slight
misalignment that might occur
between the page edge and crop.
2 CROP MARKS
These should be inset into the page bleed.
Make sure you’ve printed your portfolio with
crop marks and bleed settings turned on.
3 CAREFUL CUTS
12
Don’t crop the crop marks!
2
11
1
4
10
3
Line your ruler up with the
5
7
9
6
crop marks and then cut
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9
8
within those lines.
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7
12
13
6
14
15
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5
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4
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3
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BLEED
CROP
MARKS
25
2
24
PAGE
EDGE
26
1
27
28
Because the image will extend
29
30
beyond the edge of the page,
you’ll need to print on paper that
is larger than your portfolio size.
Printers charge by the size of
7
12
13
paper they need to print on,
6
14
15
16
5
17
18
4
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3
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2
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1
4 FINISHED PAGE
not the final size.
Your final portfolio page will pop
out from the cut paper leaving
behind a “window frame” with
the bleed margins and crop
marks remaining.
28
29
Portfolio Size
8.5” x 11”
8” x 10.5”
8.5” x 8.5”
8” x 8”
Paper Size
11” x 14”
8.5” x 11”
11” x 14”
8.5” x 11”
30
Slightly changing portfolio
size can make a difference
in printing costs.
23
PRODUCTION
BINDING OPTIONS
BINDING PLAYS A BIG PART IN THE OVERALL DESIGN and construction of the portfolio.
Binding contributes to the atmopshere of your portfolio. It should be quiet, as unobtrusive as
possible and, of course, facilitate your ability to open the portfolio. Will the book lay flat? Will
the images be continuous? How you approach these questions will have an impact on the binding.
When opened, coilbound books will lay
flat on a surface
Perfect binding
looks polished
and professional
METAL O-RING BINDING
PERFECT BINDING
WHY IT'S GREAT
• An easy and inexpensive binding option
• Book lays flat when open (a big bonus!)
WHY IT'S GREAT
• Clean and neat; looks like a professional book
• Images seamlessly span the book spine
LOOK OUT FOR
Plastic coil binding. Never use plastic. It looks and feels
cheap and can snag the paper.
LOOK OUT FOR
Looking too professional. If the book looks too much like a
professional monograph, the reader expects professionallooking work. Student projects might look out of place in
this context.
Metal O-ring coils can be difficult to locate. Consider
purchasing your own binding machine if you’re committed
to this method and cannot find a professional resource.
Finding a local printing service that offers perfect binding
can be difficult. Most do not offer this binding option. If you’re
Coil scale can make a big
committed to a perfect bind, you’ll likely have to print and
difference in portfolio
bind through an online provider. Online providers’ page print
presentation. If your book
qualities can be inconsistent so give yourself plenty of time
is small and thick, the large
for quality checks.
coil needed to hold many
pages can look too large.
24
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PORTFOLIOS
Screw-post binding
works on thicker
portfolios
Tape binding is
inexpensive and
readily available
NOTES ON:
BINDINGS
TO AVOID
There are a few binding types that
can detract from your portfolio
presentation.
TAPE BINDING
SCREW-POST BINDING
WHY IT’S GREAT
• Inexpensive and readily available
alternative to perfect binding
LOOK OUT FOR
Portfolio thickness. Tape binding
works for books less than 1/2" thick.
Tape colors are usually limited to
white or black (although someone
once “clad” her tape bind with hot
orange tape!)
Cover. Unless you’re going to cover
the book with a jacket or sleeve,
incorporate the tape edge as part
WHY IT’S GREAT
• Works well for portfolios that are too
thick for tape binding.
• With the proliferation of scrap booking,
materials are easy to find
LOOK OUT FOR
Opening the book. If you’re using
heavier, stiffer paper, this binding method
can make your book difficult to open
Cover. Use a cover to mask the presence
of the posts. Overly techtonic portfolios
are very “early 90s decon.”
of the cover design.
Saddle-stitch
binding works
well on portfolios
with fewer pages
SADDLE STITCH
WHY IT’S GREAT
• An inexpensive binding option
available at most print shops
• Book lays flat when open
• Images seamlessly span the spine
LOOK OUT FOR
ANYTHING PLASTIC
The portfolio is a tactile
experience, not just a visual one.
Plastic coils, plastic sleeves and
covers can make your work feel,
and subsequently appear, cheap
and flimsy.
OFF-THE-SHELF FOLIOS
Most art stores sell two types of
folios: inexpensive, black plastic
folders, or expensive, metal
binders. Neither of these are good
options as they can make your
work look unfinished. The plastic
folios can make your work look
flimsy and cheap, and the metal
binders can be too stiff and shiny.
CRAFTY BINDING
If done with precision, hand-sewn
bindings can be subtle and
sensitive. However, they take a lot
of time and can quickly become
overly precious. Be cautious.
Number of pages. Saddle stitch works
well for portfolios with fewer pages.
Paper weight. Saddle stitch works better
on thinner paper with more drape.
Print production. In saddle stitch the
portoflio pages are stacked and then
folded. As a result, set up will take some
forethought.
ARTICULATED BINDING
Never use anything that hyperarticulates the book’s techtonics
such as nuts, bolts, twigs, ribbons,
wire, twine... Don’t confuse a
serious presentation of your
work with the chance to “express
yourself.” The portfolio is not a
scrap book.
25
PRODUCTION
COVER OPTIONS
THE COVER IS AN EXTENSION OF YOUR PORTFOLIO INTERIOR. Until you design your
portfolio pages, you cannot really design what the cover will look like graphically. However, you
can and should be thinking about the tactile experience of your portfolio and what materials
will help support this intention. Will your cover be hard or soft? Sturdy or delicate? Thinking
through these physical options will help you make other decisions.
The hand-made jacket is a
durable, elegant sleeve for
the wire-bound portfolio
that slides into the back flap
Chipboard, a classic “architecture
school” look, is modernized with
dye cuts that reveal hot pink paper
HARD COVERS
WHY THEY ARE GREAT
Durable and strong, hard covers will protect the sheets within
and withstand multiple pairs of hands looking at the work.
Traditional book-binding techniques. There are ways other
than metal O-ring to bind hard covers, but getting too crafty with
your portfolio can send the wrong message—suddenly you have
a scrap book! Or it looks like you’re trying too hard to “design”
MATERIALS
Rigid materials that have no flexibility or bend, such as
chipboard, museum board, plastic or book board.
the binding. If done with precision and executed perfectly,
BINDING OPTIONS
Due to their lack of flexibility, hard covers work well with
binding that offers no resistance, such as coil binding.
ADDITIONAL DESIGN COMPONENTS
LOOK OUT FOR
Gratuitous laser cutting. Just because you have the technology
doesn’t mean you should use it. Cutting perforations through
transparent plexiglass is hardly effective, and no one likes burnt
chipboard. Think carefully and critically before using the laser
cutter to design your portfolio cover.
26
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
hand sewing can be subtle and beautiful, albeit labor intensive.
Proceed with caution.
• Dye cuts can be used to add openings. Talk with your printer /
binder about dyes already available.
• Customize your portfolio by adding a printed half-sheet
of paper bound to the coils.
• Foil printing, stamping, or embossing your cover are other
ways to add visual interest.
PORTFOLIOS
A NOTE ABOUT COVER DESIGN
Keep it super simple. A plain cover or simple graphic element
with your name is sufficient. Using photos or graphic trends
will quickly become outdated; also, stay away from putting
the date on the cover, too. The minute the year changes, your
portfolio is instantly outdated.
SOFT COVERS
WHY THEY ARE GREAT
They make your portfolio feel more like an actual book—
Vellum. If treated thoughtfully, vellum can be a simple and
professionally published and available in a bookstore.
elegant drape of translucency. If merely added as an extra
Finishing options are more varied (matte, glossy) and
design element, it can look dated. If not used properlly, it’s a
there is greater flexibility in design.
material that skews into late-90s-deconstruction territory.
MATERIALS
ADDITIONAL DESIGN COMPONENTS
Thin, durable materials work best, such as Bristol paper,
Card stock and other materials can be used to divide sections
card stock, or any heavy weight paper.
of your portfolio and add thickness to the portfolio form.
Due to its super-saturated colored card stock, unlike vellum,
BINDING OPTIONS
is more akin to pantone swatches, illustrator samples and
Because they are flexible, soft covers work well with many
brighter colors that are more contemporary.
binding types such as perfect binding, tape binding,
and coil binding.
Add a belly band or book jacket to a tape- or perfect-bound
portfolio to give layer of information, or to hide a seam.
LOOK OUT FOR
Fragile materials. Thin, flexible materials are likely to tear,
especially on coil binding. Overuse can also wear printed
paper, revealing snags and tears after a short time.
27
CURATION
ORGANIZING YOUR WORK
WHAT SORTS OF PROJECTS SHOULD YOU INCLUDE IN YOUR PORTFOLIO?
As always, it depends upon the context. Graduate school? Focus on your school projects,
creative work and any professional practice experience you might have. Job in a firm?
Highlight your past work experience. Don’t have any architecture experience? Other creative
work such as drawings or photographs can demonstrate your visual skills.
FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL
Your list of what to include in your portfolio will change depending on your education and
professional background. Students with five-year professional degrees will have very different
portfolios from students with an undergraduate double major in, for example, art and math.
FIVE-YEAR PROFESSIONAL DEGREE
With a professional degree your application
to graduate school will include more
projects that are well developed. It is also
expected that candidates will have put their
undergraduate degree to use and apply
to graduate school after working.
FOUR-YEAR DEGREE IN ARCHITECTURE,
LANDSCAPE OR URBAN DESIGN
Supplement studio projects with design
work from seminars, classes and extra
curricular experiences.
Studio projects
• 4th year urban studio
• 5th year fall studio
• 3rd year fall studio
• 4th year spring travel studio
• 3rd year winter studio
• 4th year fall urban design studio
• 3rd year fall factory studio
• 3rd year spring housing studio
• 5th year independent study
Architecture
• 3rd year spring studio
Fabricated works
• 2nd year spring installation
• Fall furniture seminar
Other design work
• Travel sketches
• Drawings
• Graphic design projects
Professional work
• Airport competition
• Music hall renovation
• Private house for a client
Writing samples
• Essay from 4th year seminar
• Essay from 5th year history lecture
FOUR-YEAR DEGREE IN SOMETHING
ELSE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT
Majored in art, women’s studies or
astronomy? Think creatively about how
to demonstrate your ability to abstract
and think visually.
• Microscope observations from
biology classes
• Maps of Starbucks locations from
a seminar on gentrification
Art courses
• Life drawing class
• Photography class
• Intermediate drawing
28
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PORTFOLIOS
FOR AN ACADEMIC POSITION
When applying for teaching positions, it's important to emphasize three
things: research, teaching and service. Service can be communicated
through your CV, but research and teaching should be explained visually
in the portfolio. Make sure to demarcate clearly what is your work versus
your students’ work.
Statements and CV
• CV
• Teaching and Research Statements
Research / design work
• Masters thesis project
• Design projects (such as competitions and other research work)
NOTES ON:
EDITING
A BAD
PROJECT
SHOW PART OF A PROJECT
completed outside of school
• Relevant graduate school studio work and coursework that positions
your research agenda
• Professional work experience
Teaching examples
• Studios—especially those that highlight your research efforts
• Seminars and independent studies that explore your research topics
Some studio projects never
• Large lecture courses or other primary coursework that demonstrates
mature. But instead of throwing
how you can contribute to the curriculum
out the whole project, leverage
the most successful parts. A great
rendering, a decent site diagram
FOR A JOB
When applying for a job, it's important to demonstrate your disciplinary
skills. However, don’t limit this to just including construction drawings—
firms want to see how you think, too, so emphasize process and design
ideas in conjunction with your technical abilities.
Resume and references
• Resume that clearly shows the chronology of your work history
• Names and contact information for references who have already
agreed to serve as a reference
and a few strategically cropped
plans can make a fair project look
lots better.
NOT A GREAT PROJECT, BUT
SOME GOOD DRAWINGS
Not your best studio project, but
fantastic mappings from an earlier
phase of analysis? Show the maps
in another part of your portfolio,
say under drawings.
Academic work
LESS IS MORE
• Masters thesis project
Three great images are better than
• Design projects (such as competitions and other research work)
seven. Make sure to edit your work
completed outside of school
so only the best images remain.
• Other visual abilities, such as photography, graphic design and drawings
Professional experience
• Make sure to clearly demonstrate your contributions—such as plans
you drew, renderings completed or models built
29
CURATION
INCLUDING OTHER WORK
INCLUDING OTHER CREATIVE WORK IN YOUR PORTFOLIO demonstrates a breadth of
skills. Travel drawings, photographs and graphic design can all be included. However, only include
this work if the images demonstrate how you work, rather than just expand the portfolio for the
sake of extra material.
"The process"
catalouging some of the cemetaries and monuments
persoanlly visited
this page, clockwise from top [père lachaise (Paris), Glasgow
necropolis, père lachaise (Paris)]
next page, clockwise from top [new holocoust monument in
Berlin, cemetary at San Miniata (Florence). cemetary in Venice,
cemetary at San Miniata (Florence)]
From Louvre (September 29)
Three days from there towards the sun, and one towards
the ocean and you will come upon the city of Novellettos.
In the city there are several grand palaces, seemingly in
no particular order, with the grandest of the palaces just
east of the farthest western wall, half underground, half
above. The city itself is not too old, as cities go, but it
would startle any traveler to hear such. The streets of
Novellettos are lined with broken statues and pedestals of
busts—each missing a nose, or an ear, or perhaps an eye or
two. A marble arm rises out of the ground near the entry
to the cemetery, a head without ears is masoned suspiciously
near the barbers. At every turn is a relic to what seems
Novellettos’ classical past.
This, on inspection, is from where they come: there are
workers that work shifts the clock ‘round in any given
palace, making statues of anonymous peoples in all styles.
Once a month, the statues are paraded through the streets.
They arrive at the grand palace to an awaiting party of
Novellettos’ citizens standing ready with bats and clubs
and chisels. The people of Novellettos are so intent on a
romantic past—a memory—they create it monthly, by their
own accord. But, unfortunately, living only for memory
means they must also live overwhelmed by knowing always
their tomorrow.
Portfolio by Jesse Wilcox
48
DRAWINGS / SKETCHES
MATTHEW B. STORRIE
49
JULY 2004 - DECEMBER 2004
ATELIER VENEZIANO STUDY ABROAD
VENICE, ITALY
1984 - 2007
LOUISVILLE & LEXINGTON,
KENTUCKY
AUGUST 2008 - PRESENT
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 2007 - AUGUST 2008
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
SUMMER 2006
HOUSTON, TEXAS
Portfolio by Matthew Storrie
TRAVEL SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS
As individual sketches, each drawing is sufficient.
But showing travel sketches as part of your sketchbook,
and part of a larger experience of traveling, studying
and drawing makes a rich composition.
30
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PORTFOLIOS
POSTERS
FURNITURE
W ALL SECTION
GRAPHIC DESIGN
LIGHTING
DRAWINGS
SEATING
31
CURATION
DIAGRAM YOUR PORTFOLIO
ORGANIZE YOUR PORTFOLIO CONTENT BY DRAWING A DIAGRAM of page
layouts. Visualizing the structure of your portfolio will help you think about pages,
pacing and how the book will be organized.
BEGINNING PAGES
ACADEMIC PROJECTS
BACK OF
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
COVER
4
INSIDE
BACK
COVER
3RD YEAR
FALL
STUDIO
FRONT
PAGE
1
BACK OF
FRONT
PAGE
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
3
2
BACK OF
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
4
FIRST
SECTION
5
6
3RD YEAR
FALL
STUDIO
8
3RD YEAR
FALL
STUDIO
10
FIRST
SECTION
5
3RD YEAR
FALL
STUDIO
7
3RD YEAR
FALL
STUDIO
9
3RD YEAR
FALL
STUDIO
11
ABOUT THIS DIAGRAM
Layout programs show book
pages as a diagram of an
open book. The front cover
is on the first line (1) as its
own right-facing page. The
second line of pages shows
the inside back cover (2)
with the corresponding
right-hand page (3).
32
3RD YEAR
FALL
STUDIO
12
3RD YEAR
FALL
STUDIO
13
START WITH YOUR BEST
Reviewers want to see your
potential, not your “progress,”
so start with a great project
rather than the project first
in your chronology.
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
2ND YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
14
2ND YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
16
2ND YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
18
2ND YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
15
2ND YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
17
2ND YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
19
SEGUE TO STRONG WORK
Your next few projects should
still be good work, but can be
slightly fewer pages than the
first project.
3RD YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
3RD YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
21
20
3RD YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
3RD YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
23
22
3RD YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
3RD YEAR
SPRING
STUDIO
24
KEEP MOMENTUM
Emphasize your best
projects with the most
number of pages while
others can be shorter
and less detailed.
25
PORTFOLIOS
PAGE TYPES
Different types of content require different page structures.
Think of how different page styles can help pace your portfolio.
Book pages
Intro pages
Project pages
PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS
BACK OF
THESIS
PROJECT
SECOND
SECTION
40
2ND YEAR
STUDY
26
2ND YEAR
STUDY
28
2ND YEAR
STUDY
27
THESIS
29
HIDE A LESS DEVELOPED
PROJECT NEAR THE END
A project that’s a good, but
perhaps underdeveloped,
can be couched right before
a strong finale. Limit this
project to a few spreads that
focus on its best attributes.
31
30
2ND YEAR
STUDY
OFFICE
WORK 1
THESIS
THESIS
THESIS
OFFICE
WORK 1
35
34
THESIS
THESIS
37
36
THESIS
THESIS
38
PROFESSIONAL WORK
Design work completed
in an office should be
clearly separated from
your academic work.
Make sure there is an
obvious distinction
between academic
and office work.
51
OFFICE
WORK 2
47
OFFICE
WORK 2
50
OFFICE
WORK 1
46
49
OFFICE
WORK 2
45
OFFICE
WORK 2
48
OFFICE
WORK 1
44
THESIS
OFFICE
WORK 2
43
OFFICE
WORK 1
33
OFFICE
WORK 1
42
THESIS
32
41
OFFICE
WORK 2
53
52
BACK OF
THE LAST
PAGE
INSIDE
BACK
COVER
BACK
COVER
39
FINISH STRONGLY
GIVE PROPER CREDIT
Conclude your academic
Only include the
section with a longer
professional drawings,
layout of a well-developed,
renderings and models
intellectually rich project.
you worked on.
33
pag e t y pes
BOOK PAGES
“ BOOK” PAGES ARE PRIMARILY TEXT-BASED. They contain all of the portfolio's
"bookish" content such as covers, table of contents, resume and writing samples.
-> BOOK PAGES
WHAT THEY ARE
Text-based pages that contain "booktype" content in the portfolio. Book-type
pages can be used to design portfolio
content such as:
• Table of contents
• Resume or CV
• Research statements
• Writing samples
LOOK OUT FOR
Overdesigning the table of contents.
Many students approach the table
of contents as a navigation device. A
portfolio isn't as complex as a website
and doesn't require the same kind of
navigation. Stay away from too much
color-coding, tabs and bars to structure
your work.
Using too many typefaces. You can get a
lot of variation out of text by using bold,
all caps, light grey, italics or color. One
type family can expand into a nuanced
yet cohesive palette if you design it right.
Ignoring page margins. Book pages are
where most of the "book-like" structure
will be most apparent. Since images will
be minimal, make sure your organizing
grids and margins are closely followed.
T able
01
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
o ntents
Architecture
Peel or how
New York City Theater Campus
1 -6
Favela e[Interpreted]
Rio de Janeiro Post-Olympic Housing
Googleplex .0
Research and Development Complex
D isco n n e cte d ]
arket
Whole Foods Grocery and North Market
Fabricated
Swiss rmy hair
Reconfigurable Multi-Use Furniture Piece
Personal
Brian
oehler
nformation
Knowlton School of Architecture
The Ohio State University
koehler130@osu.edu
26852 Dogwood Lane
Perrysburg, OH 43551
7 -1 4
1 5 -2 2
2 3 -3 0
orks
[Strip]ple
Anthropomorphic Wall Installation
Variation of one typeface is
created through rigorous and
simple changes in the type's
weight, scale and color
34
f
3 1 -3 8
3 9 -4 2
PORTFOLIOS
DESIGNING TEXT
Book pages have a lot of text—table of contents, index,
essays—so make sure to consider the way type sits on
the page as a set of relationships.
NOTES ON:
TYPOGRAPHY
Typefaces influence the tone and
atmosphere of your portfolio.
Since the focus should be on your
work, shy away from any typefaces
that are too “designed,” lest they
call attention to themselves rather
than the work.
CREATE DIFFERENCE
Use one typeface family, but
balance bold, black text with
lighter grey type.
Irish Town Bend
Cleveland, Ohio
USE INDENTS
Project details are inset from the
project title.
SLOW
CURVE
74
ABSTRACT FOR THE NEW
VANGUARD: DESIGNERS OF A
POST-CRITICAL ARCHITECTURE
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
DR. WALLIS MILLER, ADVISOR
FALL 2006
PAOLA ITALY
VISITORS CENTER
FALL 2004 ATLELIER VENICE
WRITING SAMPLES
Defined by its separation from the
critical project, which isolated the
architectural profession into an
autonomous and reflexive discipline,
the ‘post-critical’ label has quickly
become a contentious issue in the
formation of 21st-century theory.
Although its proponents tend to prefer
a silver tongue to esoteric dialogue,
its own foundations are planted in
a much heavier sentiment. Since
the 1970’s, architectural practice
had largely been guided by a body
of modern philosophical theory,
which identified Eisenman as the
“critic” exemplar. Jacques Derrida’s
deconstructive criticism reinforced his
‘critical-commentary-via-form’ that
reacted to the traditional methods of
architectural representation. Eisenman
claimed that, throughout history,
architecture had never appropriately
modified its understanding of subject/
object relationships as in the other
humanities. In his ‘House’ series,
therefore, he attempted to remove
architecture’s dependency on a
viewing subject. For Eisenman, the
resulting form became an index of the
methods of creation, which granted its
independence from cultural influence.
In other words, he anointed form as
the true medium of architecture, and
the traces of its formulation was the
embodiment of its own meaning.
It is clear how this methodology
intensified the profession. Interestingly,
the successors of the critical theorists
are the most outspoken rivals to the
now outmoded teachings of this
‘theory-vanguard.’ The major voices
of the new trend, including Michael
Speaks, Robert Somol, Sarah Whiting,
Sylvia Lavin, and Stan Allen call for a
more accepting architecture – design
that amicably aligns the critical design
practices with the complex needs
of globalization, mass-culture, and
collaborators. By doing so, they hope to
shake the ‘Critical’ tendency to defend
architecture’s disciplinary autonomy
at the expense of society, culture, and
client needs. They are quick to assert,
however, that this does not necessitate
the rejection of critical theory as
a generative design component;
rather, they dismiss theory when
used as a primary motivation. Daniel
Barber, lecturer at the Yale School of
Architecture, adds that “the postcritical proposes that the result of these
new relationships is the possibility of
new, non-oppositional concepts of
social engagement for architecture.
The architect can now absorb multiple
inputs, produce complex systems, and
manage networked relationships in
order to productively engage economic,
cultural, and social conditions, without
sacrificing disciplinary integrity.”
Instead of rejecting cultural and
humanistic influences, “they have
instead developed unique design
intelligences that enable them to
innovate by adding something not
given in the formulation of any kind of
problem they have been asked to solve.”
Because numerous articles have
summarized the short history of the
trend, this paper is not a retelling of its
short history.The purpose is to assert
that, like post-modernism, the ‘postcritical’ label is becoming a blanket
generalization for multiple strands of
21st century design innovation. While
the writings remain similar, even
identical at times, the design projects
themselves reveal the preoccupations
of each designer. Effectively, two
branches have emerged. The first, as
identified by Robert Somol and Sarah
Whiting in their collaborative essay
“Notes around the Doppler Effect
and other Moods of Modernism,”
has been termed ‘projective,’ which
“underscore[s] [a] commitment to
advancing the practice – intellectual,
material, and formal – of architecture
and of architectural criticism in a
forward-looking direction, rather that
letting it remain mired in the bog of
negational, and therefore necessarily
retrospective (if not conservative)
techniques.” The second, which I
have called ‘predictive,’ refers to the
design of architectural change. While
both categories willingly accept that
architecture has distinct boundaries
(without actually defining them), the
latter remains skeptical of its abilities to
remain as the most effective solution.
Both advocate a multidisciplinary
approach, but while the ‘projective’
definition embodies various disciplines
under an umbrella of architecture,
the ‘predictive’ includes architecture
as but one of many categories
necessary for a design solution.
Projective
The former, including the work of
Robert Somol, Sarah Whiting (along
with her husband and partner Ron
Witte), and even vaguely the current
work of REX (formerly Office for
Metropolitan Architecture’s New York
Office) engage various disciplines
to perform as individual buildings.
Predictive
The latter, including Field Operations,
Stan Allen, the writings of Michael
Speaks, and Dutch design firm
West 8’s multidisciplinary practice
takes a less integrative approach. By
expecting change, these practitioners
interject architecture either through
time or at strategic locations.
CONSTRUCTIVISM AND THE
BAUHAUS UNDER MEYER
SCALE TEXT
Throughout its revolution in 1917,
the Russian political stage was
shifting from an authoritarian
dictatorship into a socialist regime.
After winning out over Russia’s
short-lived Provisional Government,
the Bolshevik Party emphasized
Marxist political philosophies and
the rise of the proletariat to temper
social hierarchy. The revolution
released a hidden score of lifestyle
implications, forcing designers not
only to rethink their environment,
but to consider new ways of dealing
with rapidly changing cultural, social,
and technological infrastructures.
The result was revolutionary in
itself. Whereas most other modern
architects were devising formal and
tectonic solutions to contemporary
issues, Constructivists, including
Moholy-Nagy, Szczuka and Zarnower,
were developing manifestoes for
an ever-evolving world. The work
of Constructivism, therefore, was
not about a final product or style,
but the process for dealing with
the world as reality. Moholy-Nagy
insists that it is necessary to accept
Make sure text is scaled to the size
ESSAY WRITTEN FOR 20TH
CENTURY HISTORY AND
THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE
of work. Oftentimes text is too
DR. WALLIS MILLER, PROF.
FALL 2005
large in comparison to the images.
LEFT JUSTIFY
Never justify multiple lines of text
to the right. Text to read in a single
line can be right justified.
Variation of one typeface is created
through rigorous and simple
changes in font scale and color
35
PAGE TYPES
INTRODUCTORY PAGES AND PROJECT PAGES
INTRODUCTORY PAGES ANNOUNCE A PROJECT by creating a visual break in the rhythm and
structure of the portfolio and clearly announce that one is in a “new project,” while project pages give
greater detail about the work. Together these two types of pages structure portfolio pacing.
INTRODUCTORY PAGES
Intro pages announce that the reader
is looking at a new project and help
the viewer orient themselves as they
move through the book.
• in rodu or
m l
of
ag
announ
i uall from
r
oo
Introductory pages give pacing to the
portfolio by also introducing critical
project information:
• pro
•
a
i l and u i l
and ro
• t am m m
r
dura ion
ro
olla ora or and in ru or
• s or d
ri ion of
ro
INTRO PAGE
PROJECT PAGES
Page spreads that announce a new
project. They give pacing to the portfolio
by introducing the project with some
critical information, and help viewers
orient themselves as they move through
the book.
PROJECT PAGE
Portfolio by Lisl Kotheimer
36
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PORTFOLIOS
MATTHEW B. STORRIE
37
STOP | GAP
COLUMBUS, OHIO
PASSENGER RAIL HUB
SPRING 2007
ROADW
AYS
2ND PLACE, COLUMBUS: REWIRED COMPETITION
IN COLLABORATION WITH:
BRIAN BUCKNER, YU FAN CHEUNG
RAILWAY
S
Due to the nation’s security threats,
economic troubles, and effects of a warming
global climate, Americans are demanding
a more convenient transportation
alternative. As it exists, however, the
nationwide rail network is missing several
key links that prevent its effectivity.
VEGETAT
ION
CULTUR
AL
According to Amtrak’s 2006 Fiscal Year
Strategic Plan for ‘Corridor Opportunities,’
Columbus has long been a missed
opportunity in connecting cities of the
midwest with the Northeast Corridor.
With a metropolitan population of over
one million people, Columbus will play
a key role in the development of a more
integrated network of intercity travel.
BUILDIN
GS
SITE CON
N
ED
GE
TOURS
BA
The existing Norfolk Southern rail bridge
occupies a site above the Scioto River
where networks at national, regional
and local scales intersect. The Stop|Gap
hub will replace this bridge and establish
a new public space above the river.
GE
UR
BR
ID
EDG E
UR
BA
N
URB AN
INTRO PAGE
Portfolio by Matthew Storrie
ACADEMIC WORK
Short
Street
Ar
strict
Di
gh
PUBLIC PLAZA
Hi
ct
NORFOLK S. BRIDGE
BROAD ST. BRIDGE
EXISTING RAIL LINE
W. LONG ST. BRIDGE
Greater
ai n
ert me
1
2
3
4
1
nt
URBAN BRIDGE
3
lu
Co
ront
rf
t
Rive
C
str
D i ic
HEAVY CONGESTION
CENTRAL TRANSIT DISTRICT
mbus
nter
PEDESTRIAN ENTRY
wide Ar
en a
Nation
2
vention
on
distr
i
OPENED WALKING ROUTE
4
Ce
VISIBLE PARK AREA
2
[left] Site Scheme Diagram
By pinching together mass transit systems over the
Scioto River, the building links existing parks and
provides optimal viewing of the city’s skyline.
er
all y
NEW SPAGHETTI RAIL PARK
North
an d G
ts
FRANKLIN COUNTRY VETERANS SERVICES
RAIL HUB
BUS HUB
ena ent
STOP | GAP TRANSPORTATION HUB
1
2
WATERFRONT GARDENS
ar
ARCH PARK
STACKED INFRASTRUCTURE
1
[right] Stopgap
The city of Columbus, Ohio is currently a hole in
our nation’s rail network. With a major rail hub,
Columbus would make the northeast rail corridor
directly accesible by nearly 8 million southern and
midwestern urbanites.
rsity
ve
ni
[far right] Stitched City
The site provides multiple transportation options
between two of Columbus’ primary urban centers.
U
COLUMBUS CITY HALL
o State
CENTER OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY
Ohi
38
HEAVY CONGESTION
SUPPLEMENTAL TRANSIT
r of Sci
te
us
Dow
n
Cen
TRANSIT HUB
c e a nd
ust
Ind ry
RAIL CROSSING
wn Colu
to
mb
en
GREENWAY
MAJOR TRANSIT CROSSING
n Vill
ict
Ge
r
ma
e
ag
ry Dis
we
tr
Bre
WATERFRONT
PROJECT PAGE
MATTHEW B. STORRIE
Syracuse
Boston
Washington D.C.
New Haven
New York
Buffalo
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
Schenectady
Rochester
Trenton
Baltimore
Wilmington
Philadelphia
Lancaster
Pittsburgh
Harrisburg
Formal Development
Existing rail lines and water levels
require a thin sectional profile. The
design’s pinched thin plane capitalizes
on structural and spatial overlaps.
po
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
Altoona
n:
latio
pu
8
47
k
Cleveland
n:
latio
pu
po
1k
71
COLUMBUS
41
ACTIVATED PASSENGER RAIL LINE
po
1k
33
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
n:
latio
pu
Cincinnati
po
70
n:
latio
pu
0
k
Louisville
10.5
25.6
2.5
2.0
9.0
5.2
2.8
5.2
19.1
5.8
8.4
-0.5
-0.5
5.6
5.8
7.7
10.0
Jackson
Charleston
Clidton Forge
Chicago
New Orleans
Charlottesville
0.6
2.4
8.0
10.3
19.1
2.5
13.8
4.7
-0.9
21.0
1
17.3
12.6
0.7
Ashland
7.6
13.8
35.2
Indianapolis
Memphis
6.2
2.4
0.6
-5.6
7.8
12.1
23.7
14.7
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
k
k
k
k
k
k
4
4
0
2
73
4
79
50
68
18
28
48
n:
n:
n:
n:
n:
n:
latio
latio
latio
latio
latio
latio
pu
pu
pu
pu
pu
pu
po
po
po
po
po
po
Nashville
16.4
16.9
33.9
11.1
25.0
24.9
17.9
-49.9
UNITED STATES POPULATION CHANGES 2000-2006
(IN PERCENT)
2
[right] Structural Unit
To facilitate construction, each pile and cantilever is
a self-supporting structural unit. The combined units
form a surface that oscillates between spatial affect
(horizontal) and structure (vertical).
3
PROJECT PAGE
37
FORM
PORTFOLIO PACING
BOOK PAGES
INTRO PAGES
PROJECT PAGES
Text-based pages that
Orient the reader
Typical pages that
contain “book type”
to a new project.
demonstrate the project.
content.
BOOK PAGE
INTRO PAGE
INTRO PAGE
INTRO PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
38
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PORTFOLIOS
INTRO PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
PROJECT PAGE
Portfolio by Brandon Clifford
PORTFOLIO CRAFT
This metal O-ring bound portfolio
slides neatly into a custom-made
portfolio cover.
39
ORGANIZATION
GRIDS AND GUIDES
GRIDS UNDERLIE EVERY SUCCESSFUL LAYOUT as they keep your text and
images organized by giving a structure to place, scale and sequence your work.
MARGINS
Books aren’t symmetrical. Take a ruler to your
favorite book or magazine and you’ll see the
margins at the page head are different from
the foot, fore and back page edges.
Left Page
FLOW LINES
Horizontal intervals that help organize page
elements. Sometimes they are articulated with
a physical line, but often are understood as
invisible, consistent guides across the page.
BACK
(towards spine)
COLUMNS
Divide the page into vertical spaces, and help
give text structure and legibility.
SPATIAL ZONES
Groups of modules that
together create larger-scaled
areas for images or text.
GUTTERS
Spaces between columns
to keep text and images
from running together.
40
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PORTFOLIOS
NOTES ON:
MAKING
A GRID
PAGE HEAD
Right Page
There are endless ways to divide
a portfolio page.
HALVES AND THIRDS
+
In halves
=
In thirds
Halves and thirds!
A classic grid system that allows for
flexibility and proportion.
BACK
FORE EDGE
(towards spine)
RECTANGLES AND SQUARES
+
=
Page = rectangle Work = square
A nice tension is created between
the density of work, presented as a
PAGE FOOT
BINDING OPTIONS
The width of the back edge is
dependent on how you choose to
bind your portfolio. Coil binding that
lays flat? Go all the way to the edge.
Perfect binding? Leave a larger
space to accommodate page drape.
square, and the space of the page.
GRID MODULES
A single grid space that
holds images or text.
This technique also works when
spanning landscape page spreads.
41
FORM
SAMPLE GRIDS
HALVES AND THIRDS
⅓
½
½
⅓
⅓
½
½
1
⅓
2
3
1
Portfolio by Brandon Clifford
1 SCALE AND DENSITY
2 LET WHITE SPACE LEAK
3 BREAK THE GRID
The page layout is balanced through
If you leave any white space on your
Not every image is going to fit
darker, saturated renderings and
page, make sure it isn’t “trapped” by
perfectly within the grid. Adjust the
lighter line drawings.
images and text.
guidelines when your work requires it.
42
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PORTFOLIOS
page margins
½
⅓
½
¼
⅓
⅓
¼
½
½
⅓
¼
¼
MATTHEW B. STORRIE
4
STOP | GAP
ROADWA
YS
RAILWAY
S
VEGETAT
ION
CULTUR
AL
BUILDING
S
SITE CON
N
ED
GE
TOURS
BA
GE
UR
BA
N
BR
ID
EDG E
COLUMBUS, OHIO
PASSENGER RAIL HUB
SPRING 2007
2ND PLACE, COLUMBUS: REWIRED COMPETITION
IN COLLABORATION WITH:
BRIAN BUCKNER, YU FAN CHEUNG
Due to the nation’s security threats,
economic troubles, and effects of a warming
global climate, Americans are demanding
a more convenient transportation
alternative. As it exists, however, the
nationwide rail network is missing several
key links that prevent its effectivity.
According to Amtrak’s 2006 Fiscal Year
Strategic Plan for ‘Corridor Opportunities,’
Columbus has long been a missed
opportunity in connecting cities of the
midwest with the Northeast Corridor.
With a metropolitan population of over
one million people, Columbus will play
a key role in the development of a more
integrated network of intercity travel.
The existing Norfolk Southern rail bridge
occupies a site above the Scioto River
where networks at national, regional
and local scales intersect. The Stop|Gap
hub will replace this bridge and establish
a new public space above the river.
UR
URB AN
MATTHEW B. STORRIE
Syracuse
5
Boston
Washington D.C.
New Haven
New York
Buffalo
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
Schenectady
Rochester
Trenton
Baltimore
Wilmington
Philadelphia
Lancaster
Pittsburgh
Harrisburg
4
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
n:
io
lat
pu
po
8
47
k
Cleveland
41
6
Formal Development
Existing rail lines and water levels
require a thin sectional profile. The
design’s pinched thin plane capitalizes
on structural and spatial overlaps.
Altoona
n:
io
lat
pu
po
1k
71
COLUMBUS
37
ACTIVATED PASSENGER RAIL LINE
1k
33
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
n:
io
lat
pu
po
Cincinnati
00
n:7
io
lat
pu
po
k
Louisville
10.5
25.6
2.5
2.0
9.0
5.2
2.8
5.2
5.8
8.4
-0.5
-0.5
5.6
5.8
19.1
7.7
10.0
Jackson
Charleston
Clidton Forge
New Orleans
2.4
10.3
19.1
2.5
13.8
4.7
-0.9
21.0
1
17.3
0.7
Chicago
0.6
8.0
12.6
14.7
Ashland
7.6
13.8
35.2
Indianapolis
Memphis
6.2
2.4
0.6
-5.6
7.8
12.1
23.7
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
EXPANSION
k
k
k
k
k
k
4
4
0
2
73
4
79
50
68
18
28
48
n:
n:
n:
n:
n:
n:
io
io
io
io
io
io
lat
lat
lat
lat
lat
lat
pu
pu
pu
pu
pu
pu
po
po
po
po
po
po
Nashville
16.4
16.9
33.9
11.1
25.0
24.9
Charlottesville
17.9
-49.9
UNITED STATES POPULATION CHANGES 2000-2006
(IN PERCENT)
2
[right] Structural Unit
To facilitate construction, each pile and cantilever is
a self-supporting structural unit. The combined units
form a surface that oscillates between spatial affect
(horizontal) and structure (vertical).
3
Portfolio by Matthew Storrie
4 EXPANDED PIECES
5 LAYER DIAGRAMS
6 DIAGRAM PHOTOS
Small diagrams help explain the
Adding linework on top of photos or
Photos can also be used to describe
project and serve as a nice contrast
renderings integrates the image into
a project’s development
to information-rich photographs
the overall presentation
and renderings
43
FORM
SAMPLE GRIDS
SQUARES AND THIRDS
⅓
½
½
⅓
⅓
½
½
⅓
1
3
2
Portfolio by Lisl Kottmeier
1 BIG IMAGES
2 SMALL IMAGES
3 DENSITY AND DETAIL
Large images don’t always have to
Don't be afraid to let a rendering be a
Page numbers and other contextual
be full-bleed, dense renderings or
smaller, detailed image on your page.
information can add scale and detail
highly saturated. Light line work can
have presence simply by making the
images larger.
44
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
to a page layout.
PORTFOLIOS
HALVES AND QUARTERS
¼
½
¼
¼
½
¼
½
¼
¼
¼
½
¼
[Strip]ple | 34
4
notation derivatives
veneer strip gradient
veneer strips applied to skeleton
skeletal structure creates zones
skeletal zoning provides map for notation
notation ripples applied to strips
5
Notation developed in response to human motion
in sports provides a method for mapping patterns
into the project. This results in three levels of
softness ranging from the wooden skeleton to the
string tendons to the veneer muscle.
strings, ripples, and connection points
6
Portfolio by Brian Koehler
4 BLACK AND WHITE
5 CONSISTENT COLORS
6 THINK IN BLOCKS
Some images just look better in black
Diagrams and photos are linked
Captions and images can work
and white. The orange wood tones
together with a consistent palette
together as a single unit to help
of the thin ply against the cool grey
(in this case grey, green and blue).
organize the page grid.
concrete are neutralized when the
image is changed to black and white.
45
TYPOGRAPHY
PORTFOLIO TYPEFACES
COMPRESSING TYPOGRAPHY’S RICH HISTORY AND COMPLEX TECHNICAL details
into a few pages is almost impossible. The following is a reductive overview to a few basic
principles you need to know to use typefaces effectively.
THERE ARE TWO* TYPES OF TYPEFACES
Aa Aa
cap height
x-height
serif
sans serif
baseline
SERIF TYPE
SANS SERIF TYPE
The little hooks and lines that extend off of the letters
“Sans”—French for “without”—indicates that the serifs
are called “serifs.”
aren’t present on these typefaces.
WHY THEY ARE GREAT
Serif typefaces are useful for expressing a feeling
of authority, security and establishment.
WHY THEY ARE GREAT
Sans serif typefaces express a sense of modernity.
Because they are unadorned, they appear tailored,
clean and simple.
The serifs (hooks and lines) help reinforce the line
of the text, therefore making it easier for your eyes
Titles and captions are good places to add style,
to read the lines.
color and posture to a page layout.
WHEN TO USE THEM
Serif letters are a good choice for long stretches of text
that require close reading. Most novels, magazines and
newspapers are set in a serif typeface.
WHEN TO USE THEM
Use sans-serif type faces for titles, subtitles, project
information and captions, or for books when the text
is broken into shorter sentences.
SERIF EXAMPLES
SANS SERIF EXAMPLES
The Vietnam
Memorial used
Optima to engrave
names on the wall
Clarendon
Bodoni
Optima
Adobe Caslon Pro
Times New Roman
46
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
One of the
typefaces used
to set this book
Bell Gothic
Futura
Helvetica
News Gothic
Gotham
BREAK THE RULES
All of the suggestions about how
to use typefaces are up for grabs.
Make your own rules by taking
note of how type is used in print,
on buildings, anywhere!
PORTFOLIOS
TESTING TEXT
NOTES ON:
DISPLAY
TYPE
Caslon + Univers
The typeface you select sets the tone for your project. Simple
changes in color, text size and tracking, and capital letters can
change a typeface's tone and feeling. If you’re struggling with
how to use a typeface, test out a few combinations.
Memory Trail
Friendly
MEMORY TRAIL
Wispy
Flight 93 Memorial Landscape
Flight 93 Memorial Landscape
MEMORY TRAIL
Flight 93 Memorial Landscape
MEMORY TRAIL
Neutral
This one feels best
for a contemporary
memorial
Solemn
FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL LANDSCAPE
MEMORY TRAIL
Flight 93 Memorial Landscape
Memory Trail
FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL LANDSCAPE
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Unusual, picturesque typefaces,
known as “display type,” can express
an editorial voice in your portfolio.
However, they can be tricky to use.
Unless done extremely well, they
can distract from—or even ruin!—the
atmopshere of the entire portfolio.
KEEP CONTEXT IN MIND
Super expressive typefaces found in
magazines, websites and advertising
can be very inspiring, but be careful
not to get too carried away with
stylized typefaces. Your portfolio
is about your architecture work.
Make sure your portfolio design
choices support the legibility of your
projects. Most magazines that use
expressive typography are designing
type to editorialize a featured article
or fashion spread. Your portfolio
is about sharing your work, not a
project in expressive typography.
Neutral, quiet
+
Delicate, happy
Friendly, happy
+
Solemn
47
TYPOGRAPHY
TEXT TYPES
YOUR PORTFOLIO IS A SYSTEM OF PAGE TYPES AND TEXT TYPES. How text is
presented can help clarify the way the reader navigates the portfolio, emphasizing
project introductions, details and descriptions of each project.
Intro spread is announced
with a full-bleed image
and introductory text that
announces the project
INTRO PAGE
The color of the title
and subtitles match
the introductory image
INTRO TEXT
48
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
Project title appears at the top
of each page for this section
NAVIGATION TEXT
PORTFOLIOS
INTRODUCTORY TEXT
MEMORY TRAIL
TITLE
Summarizes the project.
Flight 93 Memorial Competition
SUBTITLE
Gives more illustrative detail.
Phase 1: January 2005
PROJECT DETAILS
Include any information relevant
to the project, such as information
about collaborators, project dates
and duration and studio critics.
Phase 2: February–June 2005
Collaborators:
Jason Kentner, MLA ‘04
E. Lynn Miller, MLA ‘45
Frtiz Steiner, Hon. MLA
DESCRIPTION TEXT
On September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93
crashed in an abandoned strip mine in Western Pennsylvania.
Memory Trail reconciles the design of a memorial honoring
those who lost their lives that day, with a site left wounded by
years of strip-mining. We sought to help heal both the loss of
loved ones and the sacred ground where they came to rest.
above, left and right:
“Visitor’s Center Entrance,” Stage 2 Boards
Architecture and overlooks are
packaged together to frame
significant landscape features
MEMORY TRAIL
DESIGN RESEARCH
Karen Lewis
BODY TEXT
This text will only be read by viewers
who thoroughly go through your
portfolio. While it's important to pay
attention to this text, know that most
people will not read this information
so make sure the main points are
described in title text and captions.
CAPTIONS
Use captions as a way to insert
short, significant descriptions of
images. Along with project titles,
captions are most likely to be read.
NAVIGATION TEXT
At the top or bottom of the page,
these elements cue readers into
what part of the portfolio they
are examining.
HAPPY FAMILIES
All of the “Memory Trail” text is set in the typeface family
Univers. Rather than introduce new typefaces, hierarchy is
created though different weights, colors, styles and postures.
49
CONVERSATION
WOBJ
WILLIAM O'BRIEN JR, PRINCIPAL / CAMBRIDGE, MA
WILLIAM O’BRIEN JR is Associate
Professor of Architecture at MIT School
of Architecture and Planning and is
principal of WOBJ, an independent design
practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He is also one of the founding members
of Collective–LOK. In 2013 Wallpaper*
named his practice one of the top twenty
emerging architecture firms in the world.
He is the recipient of the 2012–2013 Rome
Prize Fellowship in Architecture awarded
by the American Academy in Rome. His
practice was awarded the 2011 Architectural
League Prize for Young Architects and
Designers. In 2010 his practice was a
finalist for the MoMA PS1 Young Architects
Program and was recognized as a winner
of the Design Biennial Boston Award.
50
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
How do graphics direct your practice?
that blindly is a missed opportunity. To do
that with an awareness of architectural
history and all of the representation that
WILLIAM O’BRIEN JR: All drawings are
abstractions. One has to make choices
about what information to include or
exclude. If the work is not built, then the
only argument one can make is a graphic
one. The choices one makes about linework, which hatches or typefaces one
uses—these elements contextualize the
work if you’re aware of it or not.
As designers, we have to be invested
in the graphic quality of the work. The
graphic presentation positions the work;
it suggests values and affiliations. Those
decisions say something about the valueset, the historic affiliations, the cultural
context that is motivating the work. To do
come before us is an important way of
communicating motivations.
GDA: How did you bring that interest
in abstraction into your portfolio
collaboration?
WO: We worked with Natasha Jen, now
a partner at Pentagram, to develop the
portfolio. We had worked together on
a project for MIT and I knew her work
was quite beautiful, aware and cautious.
The work she makes is generic when
it needs to be and highly unique when
necessary. This approach is in line with
our thinking as our practice is interested
PORTFOLIOS
in being specific when we need to be, and
work such as anachronistic, deadpan, static,
contemporary. We’re not interested in
almost invisible when we’re less interested
forlorn, melancholic. These descriptions
looking contemporary. We wanted the
in making a comment. I was interested in
seemed challenging to express graphically,
book to feel old; we used symmetry,
seeing what she would make if I gave her
but that is how we were thinking about
gutters that are more typical of novels,
a set of characteristics or requirements for
our work. We wanted the project to be
having fewer images on each page.
the portfolio. On the one hand, I wanted
more a book than a portfolio, to read more
These elements make it feel like an old
to see what she would design; but on
like a novel and less like a conventional,
book—one which has been and could be
the other, I wanted to see how she would
“responsible” architectural portfolio.
relevant for a long time—rather than a book
characterize the work. I wanted to see if
Instead of moving through spreads of
that is aiming to portray the work as “new.”
she was seeing the same things I was in
images that tell the reader about the
the work.
project, we wanted the project text to
GDA: Why did you decide to work with the
have equal weight to the visualizations.
graphic designer? Why not do it yourself?
GDA: The portfolio became a way to have
a conversation, it became a reflection tool.
WO: Yes, a type of feedback. We gave
her a difficult task. The words I used to
describe the portfolio were words that I
think characterize aspects of our design
We liked the idea of there being
an almost anachronistic quality to the
WO: I was interested in what I could
book such that the typeface would not
learn by working with someone who is
be contemporary; the ambition being
not an architect. What could a graphic
that the work would be given a quality
designer teach me about my work? I had
of timelessness. We didn’t want the
ideas about how I could communicate
presentation to make the work look
graphically, but I wanted to learn more
51
CONVERSATION
about how a graphic designer would do
GDA: How did you work together?
design has a particular history that every
new work speaks to. I wanted the portfolio
to be able to participate in earnest within
a graphic design discourse.
I was also interested in that ambiguous
zone between the graphic and the drawing,
and trying to understand the difference
between architectural drawing and graphic
design. These kinds of cross–disciplinary
WO: I asked Natasha to aim to put into
graphic language some of the terminology
and characteristics that we had talked
through. Given that we all have different
ways of thinking about translating
qualitative descriptions to concrete
design ideas, there was a lot of back and
forth about how best to interpret the
characteristics we were after.
I had ideas about what would make
a good design portfolio, but I wanted an
expert to help guide me. It’s one thing to
have ideas about graphic design as an
architect and it’s another to have those
is like that, but also because we are trying
to articulate an opposition to contemporary
fascination with dynamism and plasticity.
In our work we try to make objects that
engaging through static means rather than
rely on didactic forms of dynamism to
attract attention. We typically think about
the projects as sedentary objects—still, but
layered objects that prompt more looking.
You speak about kinetics and pace—if we
conversations don’t happen unless you
make them happen.
static or stoic in discussions about our
work, not only because we think our work
that. Like all creative disciplines, graphic
GDA: The book feels very different from
architecture books that, say, use different
cropping techniques to communicate
movement, to reflect the book’s kinetic
quality. Were you rejecting these types
of techniques?
were to talk about pace, it would be about
slowing down. Putting a single image on a
page that might seem too simple to have
its own dedicated page, but warrants a
discussion of looking closer.
We wanted to do something that’s
not architecturally responsible. Every
ideas validated by a graphic designer
who could reflect back to me if the
WO: Maybe our work is oppositional to
architect makes hundreds of drawings
ideas were good or needed to change.
“kinetics.” We use words like deadpan,
about each project and there’s often an
52
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PORTFOLIOS
effort to include all of the drawings as
WO: The graphic quality of the drawing
look different; you may represent things
“proof” you developed a comprehensive
and the page are utterly inextricable.
differently depending on the evolution of
project… and we have that desire, too.
Especially since we happen to be invested
your mental state. As an example, before
Yet at the same time, we think that an
in what we could describe as an offshoot of
I studied in Rome for a year, I was curious
intelligently distilled drawing has the
minimalism—a kind of eclectic minimalism.
and, perhaps, skeptical about the power
potential to be as powerful as many
In our case it is critical that we take
of the formal mechanisms of symmetry,
conventional architectural drawings. We
account of which lines are present, and
proportion, axiality. Now, after being
hope a small set of these types of drawings
which are not. There is also a dialogue
exposed to so many incredibly powerful
produces a more compelling argument
between the drawing and its captions, its
buildings that utilize these mechanisms so
about the architecture rather than trying
titles, the page numbers. The graphics of
successfully, I crave such formal devices.
to overwhelm in order to convince. We’re
type and the graphics of drawing are in no
taking a chance and hoping that the five
way inseparable.
conceptual drawings will be as cogent as
50 conventional drawings.
GDA: When you place an image on a page,
do you ever find that your perception of
the drawing begins to change? Does the
graphic presentation of the work become a
way to confront its qualities?
I don’t think architects talk about this
enough. There’s usually a conversation
about what makes a drawing “correct” for
GDA: Once you place that image on the
page or the screen, the layout becomes
part of the linework.
a certain project, but we should be talking
about what makes something correct for a
certain project at a certain time. Because
your values shift, so too do the drawings
WO: Right. And I would also say that
attitudes towards drawings change as one’s
own biases and experiences change. Things
that represent the values. These things are
constantly in flux.
53
Page Intentionally Left Blank
presenting yourself
resumes
OVERVIEW
ORGANIZING INFORMATION
Name is too big—
emphasize skills and
experience instead
THE RESUME IS A PRACTICE IN NESTING INFORMATION. Being able to consume
information in a quick, visual way allows for someone to access the resume in two ways: first,
quickly as one skims information to get the big picture; and then in a longer, more detailed
way to understand fully skills and experiences.
1
Ditch the graphics—
use space, rather
than heavy lines, to
organize information
SAME RESUME,
DIFFERENT STRUCTURES
Each resume is the same size, uses the
same typefaces and includes the same
information. Their radically different
appearances are a result of space and
organization, the basis for all good
graphic design projects. Space, not
form, structures the resume.
1 BAD RESUME
TOO MANY “ELEMENTS”
This resume relies on physical elements such as dark
bars, lines and an excessive number of bullet points to
organize content. Space, rather than “graphic design”
elements, should be used to manage information.
•
pag i im alan d
•
t
u i
•
i
mm ri all l f
d and rig
too man
l m n
om
ma
align d
ar a
ag
ard
SIMPLE HORIZONTAL
Larger margins, a baseline grid and simple organizing
structures help components fit onto the page.
Hierarchies are subtly reinforced with slight indents
and larger spaces after sections.
ing
ard o r ad no o m n ion
a
2 BETTER RESUME
• r um
on n
from
ag
• t
i
oa
a a
dg
alan d
n
old main info and lig
d
ri ion
• su l ind n
l organi
56
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
ig
and o lin
ion
RESUMES
3 EVEN BETTER RESUME
Name is rescaled
and aligned with the
rest of the resume
PACKAGED INFORMATION
Three distinct columns of information help make this
resume more easily “skimmed.” The overly horizontal
quality of a resume is broken apart into three columns
that read across and down the page.
• c n r olumn old
Subtle flow lines
and indents
give structure to
each section
main d
ri ion in
imma l
• sid
olumn
and on
or
n n
old an illar
ual informa ion
2
3
Because the line length is short,
information in the center column is
highly skimmable. The right column
holds information that needs to be
quickly scanned, such as relevant skills.
Limit the number of
resume sections to three
or four—more than this
chops up the page
57
ORGANIZATION
STRUCTURING THE PAGE
THE ORGANIZATION OF YOUR RESUME DEMONSTRATES HOW WELL YOU
COMMUNICATE. How you set up the logic of this document shows how you think about your
experiences, how well you communicate to others and how clearly you present information.
.625"
FORMING RELATIONSHIPS
8½"
MARGINS
Give information on the page
room to float by allocating
generous margins.
.75"
ZONE ONE:
Include: Name and contact information,
INTRODUCTION professional summary.
Don’t: Add a headshot (it’s silly)
INFO ZONES
Develop overall page hierarchy
through logical information zones
that help group information.
Group introductory information
at the beginning, then education
and experience. Conclude with
smaller information such as skills
or other experiences.
ZONE TWO:
Include: Information about your
EDUCATION
educational background, institutions
attended, degrees awarded.
Add details: GPA, thesis topics and
advisors, study abroad, coursework
completed at other institutions.
11"
ZONE THREE:
PROFESSIONAL Include: Anyplace you’ve worked in a
EXPERIENCE
professional context, paid or otherwise.
Include software and visualization skills.
Emphasize professionalism: Never
GUIDE LINES
A few well-spaced (potentially
imaginary) vertical guide lines
can help structure and package
information details.
worked in a design office but helped a
professor with their research? Worked
as a temp in another business? Led
summer campers as a swim counselor?
Organized your undergraduate dorm
events? Describe your responsibilities,
Margins shouldn’t be
symmetrical—the spacing at
the top of the page should
be different from spacing
at the bottom and sides
.425"
58
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
leadership and organizational skills in
these experiences.
ZONE FOUR:
Include: Language skills, travel
ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION
experiences, extra-curriculular activities
and other talents.
RESUMES
NOTES ON:
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
JANE
SMITH
EDUCATION
PORTFOLIO janesmith.com
SUMMARY: Architecture major from Wellesley College with an
PHONE 617-123-4567
interest in Museum Studies and Exhibition Design. Experience in
EMAIL js@janesmith.com
architecture, visual communication and spatializing information.
BA with Honors in Architecture, Wellesley College
EXPERT IN
Wellesley, MA — 2008–2012
–
–2012
InDesign
Graduated Cum Laude; First Year Distinctions; Major GPA 3.8 / 4.0
Illustrator
•
Completed three studio design courses at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology;
T
work selected for MIT Studio Archive
•
Intensive architecture study-abroad program at Columbia University,
Shape of Two Cities: New Y
York / Paris , 2010–2011
Photoshop
Rhino
SketchUp
Vectorworks
SKILLED IN
AutoCAD
EXPERIENCE
Architecture Intern, Techler Design Group
Maya
Boston, MA — January 2012
Bonzai
Designed conceptual building mass and landscape models for client
Grasshopper
presentations and marketing publications.
3D Studio Max
Microsoft Office
Exhibition Intern, National Building Museum
Washington, DC — Summer 2011
Skilled in computer
Assisted the Chief Curator with exhibition research. Developed intial exhibition
and hand-drawing,
research on materials advertised in Sweets Catalogue and Architectural Record
figure drawing and
from 1890-1990. Synthesized primary research efforts into a report with 20-pages
sketching; 6 years
of written analysis and 250 primary-source images from the last century.
watercolor classes.
Office Intern, Phillips Janson Architects
Classically trained
New York, NY — Summer 2010
opera vocalist,
Collated and designed office furniture specification guides for 10,000 square foot
specializing in Baroque
office renovation. Organized office material library.
music. Sung languages
VERTICAL ZONES
Smaller vertical zones
are used to hold ancillary
information, such as
computer skills, artistic
abilities, travel experiences
or personal interests.
The smaller zones frame
the center of the resume,
which holds detailed
information about
professional experiences,
leadership and education.
include Italian, German,
Night Lab Assistant, Wellesley Astronomy Department
French, Latin, Russian.
Wellesley, MA — 2009–2011
Tutored students in astronomy fundamentals, operated telescopes.
Performed at Carneigie
Hall with the New York
Artist’s Assistant, Ross Miller Public Art
Collegiate Chorale
Cambridge, MA — 2011–2012
(2009–2011). Currently
Hand rendering and graphic design layouts for art projects
a Sopranao in the
WHAT FIRMS
WANT TO
KNOW
EDUCATION
“Put your degree institutions
first and foremost. If you
attended other schools during
a junior year abroad, for example,
highlight it under your degreeinitiating school, rather than as
a separate listing.”
Boston Bach Society
HONORS
Best in Studio Award
(2011– present).
Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010
Pin Up, MIT Student Architecture Publication
“What is a Window” essay included in Spring 2009 issue
TATIANA PARFENOVA
1328 HUNTER AVE, APT A
Columbus, Ohio 43201
C
EDUCATION
2010–2013
Ohio State University, Knowlton School of Architecture, Columbus, OH
M
Master
of Landscape Architecture. 3.9/4.0 GPA
2004–2006
State Forestry Engineering Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia
B.S., Landscape Design. 4.9/5.0 GPA
PROFESSIONAL
EXPERIENCE
VOLUNTEER
EXPERIENCE
AWARDS
SKILLS /
INTERESTS
VERTICAL SECTIONS
Experiences are organized into
the wider column while skills and
personal information are organized
into the smaller column.
TATIANA.V.PARFENOVA@GMAIL.COM
614.804.7499
2001-2006
Lobachevsky State University, N. Novgorod, Russia
B.A., History, Teacher of History. 4.6/5.0 GPA
2011–current
Knowlton School of Architecture, Landscape Department, Columbus, OH
Graduate Teaching Assistant, 15 hours / week
• Assist undergraduate students with introductory design projects
2011
Knowlton School of Architecture, IT Department, Columbus, OH
Laser Cutting Lab Coordinator 8 hours / week
• Resolved software and equipment problems
2008–2010
Seely’s Landscape Nursery, Hilliard, OH
Landscape Designer
• Designed a variety of residential projects
• Organized project presentations and sales
• Published a phenological diary
2006–2007
Zeleniy Gorod, N. Novgorod, Russia
Engineer in Landscape Development
• Developed residential and commercial projects from start to finish, including
construction documents and cost estimates
2005–2006
Usadba LLC, N. Novgorod, Russia
Internship in Landscape Design
• Worked on planting design
• Produced dimensional drawings, view renderings
2010–current
Urban Market, Columbus, OH
Trader
• Provided and sold seasonal herbs and vegetables from the garden
• Promoted growing and eating healthy food
2009–current
NECKO Community Garden, Columbus, OH
Committe member, Gardener
• Contributed to the development of a garden layout
• Cultivated tomatoes, peppers, squash, basil, radishes, etc
2009–current
Blendon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, OH
Naturalist
• Participated in all-ages educational programs, for example “Seeds and Weeds”
• Monitored Eastern Bluebirds
2011
Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture Leadership Award
A
2010–2011
Three academic design projects selected for the KSA Student Project Galleries
T
2010
Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture, Charles R. Sutton Memorial Scholarship
2007
Second Place, Landscape Design Competition of State Technical University, Russia
• Proficient in Autodesk Auto CAD, Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office
• Beginner skills in Rhino, GIS, Vectorworks, SketchUp
• Foreign Languages: Russian (native speaker);
Latin and Ancient Greek (certified to teach), Ukranian (familiar)
• Other interests include yoga, drawing, gardening, eastern dance
SIMPLE HORIZONTAL
While the resume is organized into
horizontal sections, three clear
columns organize section headings,
dates and experiences.
CLEAR CHRONOLOGY
“Make the dates easy to read—
it’s frustrating to track career
moves across dates that aren’t
clearly articulated in the resume.”
REFERENCES
“If you’re using a reference,
especially someone who used
to work at our firm, make sure
that person knows you’re using
them as a reference. We had
a student apply for a position
once using a professor’s name
without his knowledge—and the
professor wasn’t eager to give his
recommendation.”
SOFTWARE SKILLS
“Let us know if there are some
programs you’re more familiar
with than others. Software
packages change so much
we’re mostly looking for
someone with skills that
are adaptable.”
59
STRUCTURE
BASELINE GRID
chitecture Intern, Techler Design
ONE OF THE MOST CRITICAL TOOLS FOR TYPESETTING, the baseline grid gives
proportion and structure to type and spacing. When it’s activiated, the baseline grid organizes
all of the spaces between text, giving the overall typesetting an organized, proportional feel.
ston, MA — January 2012
JANE
SMITH
PORTFOLIO janesmith.com
PHONE 617-123-4567
EMAIL js@janesmith.com
SUMMARY: Architecture major from Wellesley College with an
interest in Museum Studies and Exhibition Design. Experience in
architecture, visual communication and spatializing information.
NO BASELINE GRID
The text on this resume does not
snap to the baseline grid, and as a
result slight deviations occur in the
horizontal alignment of text. Small
variations in text spacing make the
resume look less coherent.
signed conceptual building mass and lan
sentations and marketing publications.
EDUCATION
BA with Honors in Architecture, Wellesley College
EXPERT IN
Wellesley, MA — 2008–2012
InDesign
Graduated Cum Laude; First Year Distinctions; Major GPA 3.8 / 4.0
Illustrator
•
Completed three studio design courses at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology; work selected for MIT Studio Archive
•
Intensive architecture study-abroad program at Columbia University,
Shape of Two Cities: New York / Paris , 2010–2011
Photoshop
Rhino
SketchUp
Vectorworks
SKILLED IN
AutoCAD
EXPERIENCE
Architecture Intern, Techler Design Group
Boston, MA — January 2012
Designed conceptual building mass and landscape models for client
presentations and marketing publications.
Maya
Bonzai
Text doesn’t align
Grasshopper
3D Studio Max
Microsoft Office
Exhibition Intern, National Building Museum
Washington, DC — Summer 2011
Assisted the Chief Curator with exhibition research. Developed intial exhibition
research on materials advertised in Sweets Catalogue and Architectural Record
from 1890-1990. Synthesized primary research efforts into a report with 20-pages
of written analysis and 250 primary-source images from the last century.
Skilled in computer
and hand-drawing,
figure drawing and
sketching; 6 years
NO GRID
hibition Intern, National Building
Office Intern, Phillips Janson Architects
New York, NY — Summer 2010
Collated and designed office furniture specification guides for 10,000 square foot
office renovation. Organized office material library.
Night Lab Assistant, Wellesley Astronomy Department
watercolor classes.
Classically trained
vocalist, specializing
in Baroque music.
Performed in Italian,
German, French, Latin,
Spanish and Russian.
shington, DC — Summer 2011
Wellesley, MA — 2009–2011
Tutored students in astronomy fundamentals, operated telescopes.
Artist’s Assistant, Ross Miller Public Art
Cambridge, MA — 2011–2012
Hand rendering and graphic design layouts for art projects
Performed at Carneigie
Hall with the New York
Collegiate Chorale
(2010–2011). Currently
a Soprano in the
Boston Bach Society
(2011– present).
isted the Chief Curator with exhibition rese
earch on materials advertised in Sweets Ca
m 1890-1990. Synthesized primary research
written analysis and 250 primary-source im
HONORS
Best in Studio Award
Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010
Pin Up,, MIT Student Architecture Publication
“What is a Window” essay included in Spring 2009 issue
When text doesn’t sit on the
baseline grid (light blue lines),
the spacing between lines
of text isn’t proportional
60
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
Shape of Two Cities: New York / Pa
RESUMES
Architecture Intern, Techler Desi
Boston, MA — January 2012
JANE
SMITH
PORTFOLIO janesmith.com
SUMMARY: Architecture major from Wellesley College with an
PHONE 617-123-4567
interest in Museum Studies and Exhibition Design. Experience in
EMAIL js@janesmith.com
architecture, visual communication and spatializing information.
BASELINE GRID
With the baseline grid, everything
snaps to the underlying structure.
Space between type is locked into
similar proportions, giving spatial
rigor to your resume no matter
what size typefaces you choose.
Designed conceptual building mass and l
EDUCATION
BA with Honors in Architecture, Wellesley College
EXPERT IN
Wellesley, MA — 2008–2012
InDesign
Graduated Cum Laude; First Year Distinctions; Major GPA 3.8 / 4.0
Illustrator
presentations and marketing publications
•
Completed three studio design courses at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology; work selected for MIT Studio Archive
•
Intensive architecture study-abroad program at Columbia University,
Shape of Two Cities: New York / Paris , 2010–2011
Photoshop
Rhino
SketchUp
Vectorworks
SKILLED IN
AutoCAD
EXPERIENCE
Architecture Intern, Techler Design Group
Maya
Boston, MA — January 2012
Bonzai
Designed conceptual building mass and landscape models for client
Grasshopper
presentations and marketing publications.
3D Studio Max
Because of the baseline
grid, text aligns across
the entire page
Microsoft Office
Exhibition Intern, National Building Museum
Washington, DC — Summer 2011
Skilled in computer
Assisted the Chief Curator with exhibition research. Developed intial exhibition
and hand-drawing,
GRID
Exhibition Intern, National Buildi
research on materials advertised in Sweets Catalogue and Architectural Record
figure drawing and
from 1890-1990. Synthesized primary research efforts into a report with 20-pages
sketching; 6 years
of written analysis and 250 primary-source images from the last century.
watercolor classes.
Office Intern, Phillips Janson Architects
Classically trained
New York, NY — Summer 2010
opera vocalist,
Collated and designed office furniture specification guides for 10,000 square foot
specializing in Baroque
office renovation. Organized office material library.
music. Sung languages
Washington, DC — Summer 2011
include Italian, German,
Night Lab Assistant, Wellesley Astronomy Department
French, Latin, Russian.
Wellesley, MA — 2009–2011
Tutored students in astronomy fundamentals, operated telescopes.
Performed at Carneigie
Hall with the New York
Artist’s Assistant, Ross Miller Public Art
Collegiate Chorale
Cambridge, MA — 2011–2012
(2009–2011). Currently
Hand rendering and graphic design layouts for art projects
a Sopranao in the
Assisted the Chief Curator with exhibition re
Boston Bach Society
HONORS
Best in Studio Award
(2011– present).
Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010
Pin Up,, MIT Student Architecture Publication
“What is a Window” essay included in Spring 2009 issue
esearch on materials advertised in Sweets
The bottom of each text
line snaps to the grid and
spaces between lines of text
are even and proportional
rom 1890-1990. Synthesized primary resea
f written analysis and 250 primary-source
61
BEFORE / AFTER
NESTING INFORMATION
THE RESUME IS A TRICK OF PACKAGING CONTENT. Being able to consume information
in a quick, visual way allows for someone to access your resume in two ways: quickly, as one
skims information to get the big picture of experiences; and then in a longer, more detailed
way to understand your experiences more fully.
UNPACKAGED INFO
Everything on this resume reads at
the same “level.” Titles and body
text are almost the same weight,
and too many graphic elements
make it look cluttered.
BEFORE
4
MichaelOdum
Smith
Michael
120 E 15th Avenue ♦
Objective 1
michael_smith@gmail.com
330-998-1809 ♦ E-mail: odum.10@osu.edu
Columbus, OH 43201 ♦ 123-456-7890
3
To obtain a position for the remainder of the quarter, as well as the summer
Education
The Ohio State University, 3.65 Cum GPA
Projected B.S. in Architecture & Minor in City and Regional Planning
Anticipated Graduation: June 2012
September 2008 - Present
1 OBJECTIVE
Work Experience
At this stage in your career it’s
Twinsburg Parks and Recreation - Twinsburg, OH
May 2006 - August 2010
• Summer Camp Counselor
• Developed and supervised activities for children between the ages of 6 and 12
• Instructed children centered activities that facilitated collaborative work
obvious the objective of your
resume is to obtain a position.
Delete this redundant information.
2 START STRONG
Highlight your relevant experience
first rather than the last job you
had. If you don’t have much work
experience, consider starting with
leadership experience gained from
volunteer positions.
2
May 2008 - June 2008
Perrino Custom Homes - Kirkland, OH
• Observed and assisted a licensed builder in daily operations and tasks
• Designed cabinetry for luxury homes and generated construction documents
• Assisted in the bidding and material selection process of multiple homes
Community Service
Habitat for Humanity - Savannah, GA
• Alternative spring break trip
• Restored a pre-existing Habitat for Humanity home
• Organized a Habitat for Humanity Re-Store
March 2011
SERVitecture- Columbus, OH
October 2008-Present
• Planned and implemented community service opportunities for fellow undergraduates
3 • Organized networking events and socials for current members
• Developed action plan to help raise money for the OSU Relay For Life charity event
Computer Skills
3 TOO MANY “GRAPHICS”
Tone down all of the extra lines
and bullet points—too many
graphic elements are obtrusive
and clutter the resume.
4 WATCH THE MARGINS
Tight margins and wide lines of
text make for an awkward layout.
Design and Manufacturing Processes
• Microsoft Of�ice, Adobe Suite, AutoCAD, Rhinoceros
• Laser cutting machine and 3 axis CNC milling operations
Honors and Activities
Knowlton School of Architecture-Work selected for School Accreditation
American Institute of Architecture Students- Active Member
September 2010-Present
Architecture Scholars-Mentoring Program
September 2009-Present
Servitecture-Events Coordinator
Of�ice of Minority Affairs-Mentoring Program
4
62
November 2010
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
May 2010-Present
October 2008-Present
RESUMES
Exact same resume, but the
information is presented
better. There is more space
and hierarchy throughout.
AFTER
2
COMPLEXITY AND
CONTRADICTION
Michael Smith
1
EMAIL: michael_smith@email.com
CELL: 123-456-7890
Ironically, as the organization
PORTFOLIO: michaelsmith.com
of the resume becomes more
EDUCATION
complex, it appears more
Knowlton School of Architecture, The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH — 2008-2012
• Bachelor of Science with Honors in Architecture, Magna Cum Laude; GPA 3.8/4.0.
• Minor, City & Regional Planning
• Design honors: “Best in Studio” award, Winter 2012; Work selected for accreditation, Spring 2011
3
streamlined. Simplicity requires
greater spatial complexity.
VOLUNTEER & LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE
Events Manager, SERVitecture
Columbus, OH — 2010–2012
Oversaw event planning for SERVitecture, a community service design organization within the Knowlton School of Architecture.
• Coordinated and planned 7-day spring break trips for Habitat for Humanity
• Developed new fundraiser, “Fashion Shcau” to benefit Dress for Success. Worked with other members to design a university-wide
fashion show held at the Knowlton School. Raised $1000.00.
• Organized quartley school-wide promotional events between students and faculty
Volunteer, Habitat for Humanity
2010-2012
Participated in various construction and planning activities for Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit construction agency
• Cleveland, OH (2012): Weekend construction and ReStore volunteer for an on-going construction.
1 PAIRING TYPEFACES
Bold, serif typefaces are balanced
with light sans serif type. The
characteristics complement each
other by providing visual weight
and relief.
• Savannah, GA (2011): Lead 10-day spring break trip for 20 KSA students. Constructed homes for five days, worked at the local
Re-Store for the rest of the trip. Coordinated with Habitat in Georgia, developed itinerary and managed the budget while traveling.
• Springfield, OH (2010): Weekend “blitz-build” to construct two houses in two days.
2 GENEROUS SPACING
DESIGN & PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
3
Research Assistant, Knowlton School of Architecture
Columbus, OH — March 2012 - present
Assisted Professor Jane Willis in the development of her book, Architecture for Graphic Designers (Rowledge 2013).
• Researched primary and secondary sources architectural graphic systems such as diagrams, books and maps.
• Created diagrams and produced photographs to be included in the published book.
Logistics Assistant, Ohio State Stores Receiving and Mail
Columbus, OH — 2011-2012
Acted as the Iinterface between Ohio State mail customers and Stores logistics network.
• Coordinated package deliveries for university customers with Stores driver fleet
• Cataloged financial information into university-wide databases, such as PTS, DocFinity and Phoenix
Camp Coordinator, Twinsburg Summer Camp
lines of text from jamming up
against one another. Indents help
package related information, while
subtle spaces separate topics.
Twinsburg, OH — Summers, 2006-2010
Senior counselor at 200-person day-camp. Oversaw and trained camp couselors (ages 13-15), worked with children (ages 6-12).
• Developed child centered activities that promoted collaborative work. Sports, swimming, music and art activities.
Senior Studio Project, Perrino Custom Homes
Kirkland, OH — Spring 2008
Full-time intern with high-end custom interior design firm focused on trim packages, kitchen design and layouts
• Developed construction sketches (plans, elevations, details) and material specs for bidding and construction
• Assisted and observed licensed builder with on-site construction meetings with clients, contractors and sub-specialists
4
The baseline grid helps prevent
3 TEXT DETAILS
Only two typefaces are used,
but hierarchy is created through
different styles for titles, job
SKILLS / INTERESTS
Expert In: AutoCAD; Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop; Rhino; Microsoft Office; Laser Cutting
Skilled In: 3D Studio Max, Google SketchUp; 3 Axis CNC Milling
Lanuages: Conversational in Spanish
4 BETTER MARGINS
A slightly smaller type size allows
for better spacing and margins.
Light lines help frame
information without
cluttering the page space
63
STYLE
MIXING TYPEFACES
TYPEFACES ARE VISUAL SYSTEMS. What kinds of tones are established with their
How typefaces work together visually can help set the tone for your professional work
and create an effective communications environment.
FAMILY DIFFERENCES
PAIRING SIMILAR TYPEFACES
Choosing a single typeface and using a family of weights
Some sans serif typefaces are square and flat, others tall
and postures—bold, book, light, italic—can create hierarchy
and fluid. Mixing stylistic choices helps balance the pacing
while still maintaining continuity.
of dense content, allowing information to be more easily
understood.
Jason Kentner
News Gothic, Bold, 17pt
22 Putnam Avenue
News Gothic, Light, 7.5pt
JASON KENTNER Futura Bold, 13pt
Cambridge, MA 02139
(cell) 617-555-1234
REED HILDERBRAND
Office Associate
News Gothic, Bold, 9pt
1998–2001
News Gothic, Light, 7.5pt
News Gothic, Bold, 9pt
WHY THIS IS GREAT
• Keeps the graphic quality consistent
• Differences are created through nuance
LOOK OUT FOR
Maintaining difference. If you choose to work with
a single typeface, make sure you have enough of
the family to build hierarchy and difference between
typefaces. Bold against light provides better hierarchy
than roman against light.
Jason Kentner
22 Putnam Avenue
Jason Kentner
22 Putnam Avenue
Gotham Narrow Light,
8pt, tracking +25
Reed Hilderbrand
Futura Bold, 9pt
OFFICE ASSOCIATE
Futura Bold, 6pt
Gotham Narrow Light,
8pt, tracking +25
1998–2001
WHY THIS IS GREAT
• Slight stylistic allow for another texture to be added
while still maintaining similar stylistic profile
• Maintains a modern tone
LOOK OUT FOR
Slight adjustments. When using similar typefaces,
legibility resides with the details. Because the fonts look
proportionally similar, small adjustments in tracking and
spacing differences can yield significant results, making
information easier to see.
Balancing type scale, bold and
light weights provide hierarchy
Roman and light are too
similar—not enough difference
22 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(cell) 617-555-1234
JASON KENTNER No adjustments to
.5"
22 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(cell) 617-555-1234
.8"
JASON KENTNER
.6"
22 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(cell) 617–555–1234
.95"
64
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
the horizontal or
vertical alignments
Legibility increases
with more leading and
tracking, especially
between the numbers
RESUMES
PAIRING SERIFS AND SANS SERIFS
Pair serif and sans serif typefaces by considering their properties.
Thin and simple Futura pairs well with intricate Sentinel. The narrow “n’s”
in Bodoni have a similar stance as those in FF Din. Look for commonalities
and contrasts to provide rhythm.
SENTINEL + FUTURA
NOTES ON:
WHAT THE
FONT?
Jason Kentner
JASON KENTNER
“I love your poster design! Which
22 Putnam Avenue
22 Putnam Avenue
font did you use?” Argh! Font? Font?!
Cambridge, MA 02139
Cambridge, MA 02139
Sigh. “Oh, you must mean typeface.”
(cell) 617-555-1234
(cell) 617-555-1234
Reed Hilderbrand
REED HILDERBRAND
1998–2001
1998–2001
Office Associate
Office Associate
CASLON + UNIVERS
Jason Kentner
Jason Kentner
22 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(cell) 617-555-1234
22 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(cell) 617-555-1234
Reed Hilderbrand
Reed Hilderbrand
Office Associate
1998–2001
Office Associate
1998–2001
CLARENDON + TRADE GOTHIC
Jason Kentner
Jason Kentner
22 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(cell) 617-555-1234
22 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(cell) 617-555-1234
Reed Hilderbrand
Reed Hilderbrand
Office Associate
Office Associate
1998–2001
1998–2001
BODONI + FF DIN
JASON KENTNER
22 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(cell) 617-555-1234
REED HILDERBRAND
Office Associate
1998–2001
Jason Kentner
22 Putnam Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(cell) 617-555-1234
FONTS DELIVER
Saying “font” instead of “typeface”
is a common mistake. Fonts are the
delivery mechanism—computer
files, wooden blocks or cases of
metal pieces—of a stylized collection
of letters and numbers.
TYPEFACES HAVE STYLE
The specific styling of the
collection is the typeface. When
we appreciate beautifully designed
letters on a poster, we are enjoying
the visual style of the typeface.
FONTS = MP3S
Asking “Which font did you use?”
is akin to asking “I love this music!
Which MP3 is playing?” As we
know, MP3s are just the delivery
mechanisms for the songs we love.
The same is true for fonts, which are
just the delivery mechanism for the
typeface.
Reed Hilderbrand
Office Associate
1998–2001
Fonts : Typefaces = MP3s : Songs
65
CONVERSATION
BENJAMIN VAN DYKE
GRAPHIC DESIGNER / MICHIGAN
1
BENJAMIN VAN DYKE is part of the
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
faculty in the Department of Art, Art
Your work with typography is spatial and
History and Design at Michigan State
structural—how do those ideas organize
University and Vice President
your work?
GDA: What is the typical role of
communication in graphic design?
How does your work challenge those
communication conventions?
of DesignInquiry—a non–profit
design collective focused on
BENJAMIN VAN DYKE: Space and
research and education. Van Dyke’s
structure are primary elements of the
work focuses on an experimental
work as a translation of graphic design.
approach to typography through
My work explores materials and space,
site–specific installations. He has
but it also is trying to tap into the essence
been invited to exhibit his work
of communication. What is communication,
across North America, Europe, Asia
what does it mean? And how does it
and the Middle East and continues
perform on a level that is much more subtle,
to read, write and create works that
nuanced and complex than the typical
increase our capacity for a state of
communication structures to which we
benevolent flux.
have become accustomed?
66
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
BVD: The typical role of the graphic
designer as communicator is to be a linear
conduit of transferring an idea from one
entity to another as simply and clearly
as possible. I do think there is a space for
that role. I think the majority of graphic
designers in the world are trained to be
this type of translator and, in most contexts,
that’s very efficient and very good.
Especially if you’re designing, say,
signage for a highway on ramp.
RESUMES
2
3
However, in my work, I’m interested in
simple beings. We are very, very complex
explain the value of change, randomness
exploring when communication doesn’t
beings—we don’t have the innate capacity
and uncertainty and how it can be
work so efficiently. When I was a young
to understand how complex we actually
implemented in positive, innovative ways.
art director, I was frustrated with the
are. For us to create redundant visual
I had a discussion with a client who
fact that everything had to be incredibly
communication patterns is problematic
hired me based on previous design work.
simple, transparent and linear. Interrupting
because I believe this creates a visual
When I presented my ideas to him, the
that pattern meant producing risk and
culture completely opposite who we
client was upset claiming, “No one will
most clients aren’t interested in paying
actually are. I think simplicity creates
understand it. We can’t read the type, it’s
for communication risks. Our work
numbness towards complexity.
not legible.” I say everyone will understand
had become so predictable started
implementing these little moments of
disturbance into the work. I’m trying
to create relevance for complexity
it, it is legible. The work is a little bit
GDA: There is a lot about the world that’s
inherently complex—to the point where
clarification can be a creative act.
in communication. As we know,
communication itself is a series of fairly
simple patterns. If they weren’t simple,
we wouldn’t be able to communicate.
However, we as human beings are not
striking. There is a visual barrier that slows
people down a little bit, but people will
read it and understand the work. Chaos
tends to slow people down and control
BVD: One of the ways I try to
contextualize conversations about
complexity is through an idea I call
“benevolent flux.” It’s a way of trying to
tends to speed people up.
GDA: You are free to explore these issues
of legibility in your installations.
67
CONVERSATION
4
5
BVD: The gallery has always been an
from a graphic designer. Without that
want to make flat work and I struggled
exciting space. I love doing exhibitions
categorization, they assume sculpture. But
with this. I was in grad school when I
because it lets the gallery become a
I want people to bring their interpretations
started experimenting with metal, wax,
laboratory. As a designer, there’s already
of design into the room. When the work
plastic, anything I could pull apart. In some
a sort of disconnect in this space—it isn’t
doesn’t make any sense to you, that’s the
ways it was a metaphor for what I wanted
traditional for a designer to be working in
moment when I feel that I am speaking.
to do with language—to pull it apart and
a gallery. There’s also an assumption that
find its breaking point. I had started
when someone walks into the galler, they
GDA: In your work, how does materiality
welding, working with metals, and made
are more open minded than in other places.
influence communication?
big three-dimensional pieces. It felt very
The moment typography is introduced,
liberating. I also met and spoke with the
people instantly see letters and believe
BVD: I haven’t quite figured this out—I
artist Arthur Ganson whom I saw speak
there’s something to be learned. There’s
think it has something to do with coming
when I was in graduate school. He really
data in this structure. Because of this,
of age in the late 1990s when Computer
inspired me. After that meeting, the
you can bring people into the work very
Aided Digital Design was at its highest,
computer felt shallow. I was obsessed
quickly. They’re open minded already
newest point. Apple was cornering the
with feeling the things I was designing.
because there appears to be something
market of designer technology. And as a
gleaned from the experience.
result these digital tools created a massive
GDA: Why are you trying to liberate
wave of very flat, very pasty design. I had
typography? Why reinvest it with physical,
a reaction to that. It felt inauthentic. I didn’t
material qualities?
I am vigilant about making sure the
visitor knows this exhibition is coming
68
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
RESUMES
6
BVD: I’m searching for new levels of
GDA: If chaos is one side and order is on
understanding. I’m looking for language
the other, what is moving between these
that is beyond communication—for other
forces? Innovation?
ways of knowing. I want to know where the
line is between chaos and control.
BVD: Moving between chaos and control
I have a technique to explain this concept
is learning. Knowledge is something we’ve
to students. I draw a line on the chalkboard.
already determined to be true. But learning
On the left side is chaos, on the right is
is more chaotic. Benevolent flux is about
control. If we are redesigning a stop sign,
considering complexity as a realistic virtue.
we need to be on the side towards control.
Instead of keeping chaos, uncertainty or
If it’s a band’s next album, we lean towards
risk under control, I want to recognize that
the chaotic. It’s a nonlinear path. It’s not
creating new knowledge requires great risk.
here or there, black or white, fast or slow.
It’s a combination of those things. It’s such
a combination that we may not have the
ability to comprehend this—it is “cha-ordic.”
As a designer, if you can understand how
to be on both sides, you can play the entire
field. It’s a way to be successful.
VISUAL BARRIERS
1: Contaminated Patterns
Mansfield University, Pennsylvania
2–3: EAST/WEST/EAST
BKE Gallery, Amman, Jordan.
With Hamza Najjar
4: Pecha Kucha 12: Buffalo
5: Untangle Me
Banvard Gallery,
The Ohio State University
6: Juliette Yuan Lecture:
University at Buffalo.
“Insight” font designed
by Kelsey Leach
69
Page Intentionally Left Blank
presenting work
competitions
LAYOUT
STRUCTURING THE ARGUMENT
WHEN YOU ORGANIZE THE PAGE, YOU ORGANIZE THE ARGUMENT. How you set up
the logic of the competition board is based on the logic of the narrative you are presenting.
While this skill is always important in architecture, it is especially significant in competitions
when you’re not in the room to present the project.
The grid used for this
competition board is
based on the smallest
unit of the board—the
diagram monocle
Bowery Bay
Wastewater Treatment
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Boat
Slips
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Boat
Slips
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
CSO
Wetland
Boat
Zones
Slips
D
Boat
Slips
CSO
Wetland
Zone
La Guardia
Terminals
Airport
Runoff
Mitigation
Zone
Public
Parkland
Subway
Extension
Marina
I
New
Public
Parkland
Public
Parkland
Bus
Loop
T
CSO
Wetland
Zones
L
Brooklyn
Navy Yard
E
V
ESPLANADE
90% Public Infrastructure
10% Stormwater Mitigation
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
40% Public Infrastructure
60% Stormwater Mitigation
materials toward the construction of a new airport to serve the
HARBORPORT links New York’s water management systems
with transportation networks at several scales of infrastructure and metro area. This investment allows for existing airports to be
connectivity. First, the proposal seeks to mitigate combined sewer developed to meet new sustainable standards and models, as
overflow (CSO) pollution with new subway and ferry connections. well as improve the quality of travel experience in and out of
The 2014 Clean Tech Expo serves as the public platform for this New York. In the future, the site will be opened for housing
new investment in infrastructure and water health. Following the development as a sustainable borrough, developing this water
location as New York’s sixth borrough.
Expo facilities are expanded through collection of river dredge
McGuire
Fields
O
R O
GOWANUS
COLLEGE
HARLEM
10% Public Infrastructure
90% Stormwater Mitigation
80% Public Infrastructure
20% Stormwater Mitigation
20% Public Infrastructure
80% Stormwater Mitigation
HOUSTON
DUMBO
50% Public Infrastructure
50% Stormwater Mitigation
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
LA GUARDIA
CANARSIE
50% Public Infrastructure
50% Stormwater Mitigation
20% Public Infrastructure
80% Stormwater Mitigation
LINDEN HILL
FLUSHING
10% Public Infrastructure
90% Stormwater Mitigation
60% Public Infrastructure
40% Stormwater Mitigation
7
8
23,983,082
1 subway, 2 trains
1 hr 22 min
10
46,514,154
passengers
1 subway, 1 train
33,107,041
passengers
Jamaica
Bay
9
LGA
2 subways, 1 bus
1 hr 18 min
EWR
Boat
Slips
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Subway
Extension
E
WILLIAMSBURG
S
34th STREET
HARBORPORT
Canarsie
Park
L
A
N
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
S
CSO
Wetland
Zone
Connection
to High Line
New
Runway
John Jay
Park
Adjacent
Parkland
CSO
Wetland
Zone
1 hr 2 min
6
JFK
11
QUALITY AIRPORTS
CSOS & EXPO SITES
SHIPPING LANES & RIVER DREDGE
Even though New York’s airports are are well-
We propose to leverage the festival sites with ferry
The Army Corps of Engineers is currently
connected via public transportation, travel times
travel by pairing water transit infrastructure with
researching ways to locally manage dredge from
exceed one hour. Furthermore, the infrastrascture
CSO stormwater mitigation strategies. These green
New York’s riverways. Shipping channels must be
itself it outdated. Long security lines, runway queing
infrastructure pairings comes on line with the
dredged and rather than export material to other
and congested air traffic make flying to New York
technology expo, and uses the event to actively
states, Harborport facilitates the local processing,
an unpleasant experience. Can New York’s water
address community education and exhibition of new
filling and allocation of these materials.
ways be used to transform passenger experience into
water technologies.
ANNUAL DREDGE COLLECTION
4
3
and out of New York? Can a new – even temporary –
airport be designed to facilitate the remediation and
50%
clean-technology retrofitting of existing airports?
5
Approximately 3 mcy of dredge
material is collected each year,
half of which requires remediation.
REQUIRES
REMEDIATION
CANARISE
TIER 1 CSO OUTPUTS
LAGUARDIA
50%
ESPLANADE
WILLIAMSBURG
2%
GREENING LAGUARDIA
TREATMENT TERMINALS
CSO managment links runway run-off with
water treatment facility, public parks, and
an improved passenger ferry terminal
Public transportation is brought to the city’s
edge and new green infrastructure address
the meeting of transit and water quality
CSOs
34th STREET
2% of NYC’s 494 CSOs produce
half of the sewage output
15 mil.
gal./y
384 mil.
gal./y
1
125 bil.
gal./y
231 bil.
gal./y
2
OUTPUT
OWLS HEAD
TO
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
Population
CANAR
Area
Distance from Transit
SIE
HARBORPORT PLAN
HARBORPORT
PHASING DIAGRAMS
Phase Three: active airport and dredge management
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Boat
Slips
CSO
Wetland
Boat
Zones
Slips
D
La Guardia
Terminals
Airport
Runoff
Mitigation
Zone
CSO
Wetland
Zone
PHASE 1
Public
Parkland
S
Public
Parkland
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
E
V
10% Public Infrastructure
90% Stormwater Mitigation
O
R O
COLLEGE
HARLEM
80% Public Infrastructure
20% Stormwater Mitigation
20% Public Infrastructure
80% Stormwater Mitigation
LA GUARDIA
CANARSIE
50% Public Infrastructure
50% Stormwater Mitigation
20% Public Infrastructure
80% Stormwater Mitigation
PHASE 2
North Airstrip Opens
Barge Building Becomes Terminal
Dredge Deposition Begins
Habitat Creation Under Future Airstrips
LINDEN HILL
60% Public Infrastructure
40% Stormwater Mitigation
6
14
4
Oyster Flats
6
144
6
Marsh
Habitat
Dredge
Processing
6
4
14
New York’s riverways. Shipping channels must be
Park
dredged and rather than export material to other
states, Harborport facilitates the local processing,
filling and allocation of these materials.
3
Sunset Park
5
Approximately 3 mcy of dredge
material is collected each year,
half of which requires remediation.
PORT STRIP PAVERS
Marsh
Habitat
REQUIRES
REMEDIATION
Pre-cast structural
runway components
HARBOR BED
Oyster Culture
framework for shallows
HARBOR LIGHT
Tidal Powered
Runway Approach Light /
Aquaculture Buoy
Dredge
Research
CANARISE
LAGUARDIA
50%
ESPLANADE
WILLIAMSBURG
2%
GREENING LAGUARDIA
TREATMENT TERMINALS
CSO managment links runway run-off with
water treatment facility, public parks, and
an improved passenger ferry terminal
Public transportation is brought to the city’s
edge and new green infrastructure address
the meeting of transit and water quality
CSOs
34th STREET
2% of NYC’s 494 CSOs produce
half of the sewage output
15 mil.
gal./y
384 mil.
gal./y
1
125 bil.
gal./y
2
231 bil.
gal./y
FILTER CELL
254 bil.
gal./y
Sea bags for
sediment and oysters
OUTPUT
OWLS HEAD
TO
CANAR
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
Population
Populatio
Area
Are
Distance from Transit
SIE
dredge. Renderings on the first board give an image
50%
PHASE THREE: RESEARCH & INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT
144
technology expo, and uses the event to actively
address community education and exhibition of new
water technologies.
6
focus on three things: airports, water pollution and river
14
The Army Corps of Engineers is currently
researching ways to locally manage dredge from
CSO stormwater mitigation strategies. These green
infrastructure pairings comes on line with the
11
S HIPPING LANES
LAN & RIVER
RIV DREDGE
We propose to leverage the festival sites with ferry
travel by pairing water transit infrastructure with
Southern Airstrips
Accomodate Housing
Dredge Converted to Habitat
Development Opens on Dikes
6
CSOS & EXPO SITES
and out of New York? Can a new – even temporary –
airport be designed to facilitate the remediation and
clean-technology retrofitting of existing airports?
PHASE 4
Gowanus Bay
JFK
exceed one hour. Furthermore, the infrastrascture
itself it outdated. Long security lines, runway queing
an unpleasant experience. Can New York’s water
ways be used to transform passenger experience into
and congested air traffic make flying to New York
South Airstrips Constructed
Terminal Constructed
Dredge Management Begins
Southern Overlook Constructed
Dredge Research Center Completed
Marsh
Habitat
Park
Barge
Arrival
Mud Flats
10
passengers
1 subway, 1 train
1 hr 2 min
QUALITY AIRPORTS
Even though New York’s airports are are well-
PHASE 3
Marina
BLUE NETWORK
AIR TERMINAL
7
8
9
23,983,082
46,514,154
connected via public transportation, travel times
PHASE TWO / THREE: AIRPORT & DREDGE PROCESSING
Red Hook
FLUSHING
10% Public Infrastructure
90% Stormwater Mitigation
6
14
4
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
LGA
33,107,041
passengers
Governors
Island
Jamaica
Bay
Upper Bay
DUMBO
50% Public Infrastructure
50% Stormwater Mitigation
2 subways, 1 bus
EWR
Boat
Slips
McGuire
Fields
E
GOWANUS
HOUSTON
1 hr 18 min
1 hr 22 min
Canarsie
Park
Marina
I
Bus
Loop
Subway
Extension
S
40% Public Infrastructure
60% Stormwater Mitigation
Expo Site
Park
Pavilions
Habitat
Barge Building
Subway
Extension
L
A
N
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
T
CSO
Wetland
Zones
ESPLANADE
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
materials toward the construction of a new airport to serve the
HARBORPORT links New York’s water management systems
with transportation networks at several scales of infrastructure and metro area. This investment allows for existing airports to be
connectivity. First, the proposal seeks to mitigate combined sewer developed to meet new sustainable standards and models, as
overflow (CSO) pollution with new subway and ferry connections. well as improve the quality of travel experience in and out of
The 2014 Clean Tech Expo serves as the public platform for this New York. In the future, the site will be opened for housing
new investment in infrastructure and water health. Following the development as a sustainable borrough, developing this water
location as New York’s sixth borrough.
Expo facilities are expanded through collection of river dredge
1 subway, 2 trains
the proposal is addressing. Diagrams and caption titles
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
New
Public
Parkland
WILLIAMSBURG
90% Public Infrastructure
10% Stormwater Mitigation
PHASE ONE: EXPO EVENT SPACE
New
Runway
John Jay
Park
Adjacent
Parkland
Boat
Slips
CSO
Wetland
Zone
Brooklyn
Navy Yard
34th STREET
HARBORPORT
The first competition board establishes the context that
Bowery Bay
Wastewater Treatment
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Boat
Slips
CSO
Wetland
Zone
Connection
to High Line
L
BOARD ONE: VISUALIZE RESEARCH
HARBORPORT SECTION
of how sustainable water infrastructure can impact
transportation planning.
72
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
GRID STRUCTURES
Images, text, diagrams and plans are organized on the
page to graphically relate to one another. This graphic
organization helps frame the argument, prioritizing
which images promote ideas.
254 bil.
gal./y
COMPETITIONS
BOARD TWO: IMPLEMENT STRATEGY
The second board shows how airports, river dredge
and CSOs come together to establish the proposal.
Plans, phasing diagrams and atmospheric renderings
demonstrate how the strategy is implemented.
HARBORPORT PLAN
HARBORPORT
PHASING DIAGRAMS
Phase Three: active airport and dredge management
PHASE ONE: EXPO EVENT SPACE
PHASE 1
Expo Site
Park
Pavilions
Habitat
Barge Building
Governors
Island
PHASE 2
North Airstrip Opens
Barge Building Becomes Terminal
Dredge Deposition Begins
Habitat Creation Under Future Airstrips
Upper Bay
PHASE TWO / THREE: AIRPORT & DREDGE PROCESSING
Red Hook
PHASE 3
Marina
South Airstrips Constructed
Terminal Constructed
Dredge Management Begins
Southern Overlook Constructed
Dredge Research Center Completed
6
14
Marsh
Habitat
6
14
BLUE NETWORK
AIR TERMINAL
Oyster Flats
Park
Barge
Arrival
Mud Flats
6
14
PHASE 4
Gowanus Bay
Southern Airstrips
Accomodate Housing
Dredge Converted to Habitat
Development Opens on Dikes
6
Marsh
Habitat
14
Dredge
Processing
6
14
Park
6
PHASE THREE: RESEARCH & INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT
14
Sunset Park
PORT STRIP PAVERS
Marsh
Habitat
HARBOR BED
Pre-cast structural
runway components
Oyster Culture
framework for shallows
HARBOR LIGHT
Tidal Powered
Runway Approach Light /
Aquaculture Buoy
Dredge
Research
FILTER CELL
Sea bags for
sediment and oysters
HARBORPORT SECTION
HARBORPORT PLAN
HARBORPORT
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Boat
Slips
New
Runway
John Jay
Park
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Adjacent
Parkland
CSO
Wetland
Boat
Zones
Slips
D
Boat
Slips
La Guardia
Terminals
Airport
Runoff
Mitigation
Zone
CSO
Wetland
Zone
PHASE 1
Public
Parkland
Marina
Public
Parkland
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
V
E
Subway
Extension
E
GOWANUS
10% Public Infrastructure
90% Stormwater Mitigation
O
R O
COLLEGE
HARLEM
80% Public Infrastructure
20% Stormwater Mitigation
20% Public Infrastructure
80% Stormwater Mitigation
LA GUARDIA
CANARSIE
50% Public Infrastructure
50% Stormwater Mitigation
20% Public Infrastructure
80% Stormwater Mitigation
DUMBO
50% Public Infrastructure
50% Stormwater Mitigation
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
LINDEN HILL
60% Public Infrastructure
40% Stormwater Mitigation
6
14
Oyster Flats
6
144
passengers
CSOS & EXPO SITES
4
14
New York’s riverways. Shipping channels must be
6
The Army Corps of Engineers is currently
researching ways to locally manage dredge from
CSO stormwater mitigation strategies. These green
infrastructure pairings comes on line with the
Dredge
Processing
11
S HIPPING LANES
LAN & RIVER
RIV DREDGE
We propose to leverage the festival sites with ferry
travel by pairing water transit infrastructure with
exceed one hour. Furthermore, the infrastrascture
itself it outdated. Long security lines, runway queing
Marsh
Habitat
Park
dredged and rather than export material to other
states, Harborport facilitates the local processing,
filling and allocation of these materials.
water technologies.
3
and out of New York? Can a new – even temporary –
airport be designed to facilitate the remediation and
50%
PHASE THREE: RESEARCH & INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT
14
technology expo, and uses the event to actively
address community education and exhibition of new
ways be used to transform passenger experience into
6
and congested air traffic make flying to New York
an unpleasant experience. Can New York’s water
clean-technology retrofitting of existing airports?
Southern Airstrips
Accomodate Housing
Dredge Converted to Habitat
Development Opens on Dikes
144
6
JFK
QUALITY AIRPORTS
PHASE 4
Gowanus Bay
6
1 subway, 1 train
1 hr 2 min
Even though New York’s airports are are well-
South Airstrips Constructed
Terminal Constructed
Dredge Management Begins
Southern Overlook Constructed
Dredge Research Center Completed
Marsh
Habitat
Park
Barge
Arrival
Mud Flats
10
46,514,154
connected via public transportation, travel times
PHASE 3
Marina
BLUE NETWORK
AIR TERMINAL
7
8
23,983,082
33,107,041
passengers
PHASE TWO / THREE: AIRPORT & DREDGE PROCESSING
Red Hook
FLUSHING
10% Public Infrastructure
90% Stormwater Mitigation
9
LGA
2 subways, 1 bus
1 hr 22 min
PHASE 2
North Airstrip Opens
Barge Building Becomes Terminal
Dredge Deposition Begins
Habitat Creation Under Future Airstrips
6
14
HOUSTON
1 hr 18 min
EWR
Governors
Island
Jamaica
Bay
Upper Bay
materials toward the construction of a new airport to serve the
HARBORPORT links New York’s water management systems
with transportation networks at several scales of infrastructure and metro area. This investment allows for existing airports to be
connectivity. First, the proposal seeks to mitigate combined sewer developed to meet new sustainable standards and models, as
overflow (CSO) pollution with new subway and ferry connections. well as improve the quality of travel experience in and out of
The 2014 Clean Tech Expo serves as the public platform for this New York. In the future, the site will be opened for housing
new investment in infrastructure and water health. Following the development as a sustainable borrough, developing this water
location as New York’s sixth borrough.
Expo facilities are expanded through collection of river dredge
1 subway, 2 trains
Boat
Slips
McGuire
Fields
S
40% Public Infrastructure
60% Stormwater Mitigation
HARBORPORT
Canarsie
Park
S
Bus
Loop
T
CSO
Wetland
Zones
ESPLANADE
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
Expo Site
Park
Pavilions
Habitat
Barge Building
Subway
Extension
L
A
N
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
I
New
Public
Parkland
L
CSO
Wetland
Zone
Brooklyn
Navy Yard
WILLIAMSBURG
90% Public Infrastructure
10% Stormwater Mitigation
PHASE ONE: EXPO EVENT SPACE
PHASING DIAGRAMS
Phase Three: active airport and dredge management
Bowery Bay
Wastewater Treatment
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Boat
Slips
CSO
Wetland
Zone
Connection
to High Line
34th STREET
Sunset Park
5
Approximately 3 mcy of dredge
material is collected each year,
half of which requires remediation.
PORT STRIP PAVERS
Marsh
Habitat
REQUIRES
REMEDIATION
Pre-cast structural
runway components
HARBOR BED
Oyster Culture
framework for shallows
HARBOR LIGHT
Tidal Powered
Runway Approach Light /
Aquaculture Buoy
Dredge
Research
CANARISE
LAGUARDIA
50%
ESPLANADE
WILLIAMSBURG
2%
GREENING LAGUARDIA
TREATMENT TERMINALS
CSO managment links runway run-off with
water treatment facility, public parks, and
an improved passenger ferry terminal
Public transportation is brought to the city’s
edge and new green infrastructure address
the meeting of transit and water quality
CSOs
34th STREET
2% of NYC’s 494 CSOs produce
half of the sewage output
15 mil.
gal./y
384 mil.
gal./y
1
125 bil.
gal./y
2
231 bil.
gal./y
FILTER CELL
254 bil.
gal./y
Sea bags for
sediment and oysters
OUTPUT
OWLS HEAD
TO
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
Population
Populatio
CANAR
Area
Are
Distance from Transit
SIE
Board imagery becomes cohesive
through a color palette—similar
colors help the saturated renderings
visually relate to the light linework
of the plans, sections and diagrams
HARBORPORT SECTION
IMAGE DENSITY
The board is balanced with larger linework images
(plans), medium-density images (perspective drawings)
and smaller diagrams (information graphics, sections).
Balance small, medium and large images with dense
renderings and lighter linework.
73
ORGANIZATION
SCALES OF INFORMATION
74
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
COMPETITIONS
NOTES ON:
1 SCALED TEXT
The project title is given
prominence at the top of
CONSISTENT
COLORS
the board, but is scaled so
it acts as a contextualizing
reminder and doesn’t
overwhelm the board.
2 INFORMATION TITLE
Text can clearly lay out
the argument, giving
context to the drawings
that demonstrate the
COMPLEMENTARY COLORS
Throughout the board, public
programs and infrastructures are
coded with blue, while private
sponsorships are red.
proposal. “Site strategy”
is a sub-header to “Take 1
underutilized semi-public
building....,” a bold statement
that helps situate the
drawings.
3 SUPPORTING INFO
Historic context and images
are placed to the side of
the main presentation,
providing support to the
main argument. Images and
text are smaller and black
and white to act as captions
for the main idea.
4 LINES SEPARATE
Light graphic lines help
separate arguments and
keep images grounded to
the page.
COLORED LINES
Different drawing types—axons,
sections and diagrams, for
example—are visually connected
to one another through colored
lines that help expand the story.
For example, blue lines show
more information about the public
investment as well as connecting
different drawing types to one
another. Blue captions connect
elements, too.
COMPOSING ELEMENTS
The board is balanced with larger
linework images (plans), mediumdensity images (perspective
drawings) and smaller diagrams.
Project by Frank Ruchala and Michael Piper
75
ORGANIZATION
LAYERING INFORMATION
COMPRESSING INFORMATION CAN CLARIFY YOUR ARGUMENT. Sometimes
more complex and layered information can be easier to follow than singular, isolated
pieces. Layered images can create different scales of information.
BEFORE
2
redundant
good diagram
to frame the
argument
this one
is better
beautiful, but a little bit thin.
not much going on in the image
3
1
1 RUN TO THE EDGE
2 SEQUENCING IMAGES
3 MISSING HIERARCHY
Not every image has to expand to
Images should support the
If all of the images are about the
the page edge, or be organized
argument you want to make, not
same size, it’s hard to enter the
against the edge of the page.
necessarily the sequence of when
argument. Give priority to the
the images were made. Consider
discussion by making some images
how the order of images impacts
larger and others smaller.
the board design.
76
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
COMPETITIONS
IMAGE HIERARCHY
In this edited presentation board, information is made
clear by compressing ideas into maps and diagrams.
Ironically, making information more visually dense makes
the message easier to read.
AFTER
4
4
5
4 TITLE / IMAGE / CAPTION
5 LINE IT UP
6 LAYER IMAGES
Visually linking the project title with
A band of contextualizing
Don’t hesitate to layer diagrams
an emblematic image helps the
information holds the beginning of
on top of perspective renderings,
reader enter the argument. Captions
the page, giving a space for details
especially when they directly relate
reinforce the wider concepts.
that support the larger perspective.
to each other.
77
COMMUNICATION
ORGANIZING IMAGES
COMPETITIONS ARE EXERCISES IN COMMUNICATION which negotiate design expectations
with the jury’s sensibilities. Ideas competitions demand a high level of speculation and creativity, while
a competition with multiple phases requires growth and development if selected to the next stage.
TRAJET MUSÉAL
FIGURE GROUND
The section for this project
is placed uncharacteristically
at the center of the board.
By presenting the section
centrally and at such a
large scale, the board is
effectively divided into two
zones. The zone above uses
the background imagery
to hold explanations, site
information, precedent and
diagrams about the project,
while the lighter zone at the
bottom demonstrates the
material organization and
appearance of the project.
PAS UN, MAIS DEUX
Au centre de l'institution, le Planétarium de Montréal se distingue comme musée avec non seulement
un, mais deux théâtre des Étoiles. La proposition exploite cette opportunité unique, amplifiant la potentialité latente offerte par cette condition comme point crucial des concepts architecturales et
muséographiques.
Le Planétarium du XXème Siècle
NOUVEL RÉFÉRENCE DANS L'ESPACE TROIS-DIMENSIONNEL
Au contraire des artefacts d'un musée type, où le sujet est constamment present, le
planétarium est un environnement ultra-médiatisée dans lequel le sujet d'astronomie
est traduit et interprété au profit de l'observateur. Il y a peu d'objets a montrer, mais
une pléthore des concepts et principes à expliquer. Le planétarium est, en somme, un
musée sans artefacts. Un musée des concepts.
Ce projet cherche a déstabiliser les contraints terrestres d'une référence horizontale en construisant un
univers parallel qu'imite nos connaissances des principes du positionnement relatif des corps célestes
dans l'espace. Chaque théâtre des Étoiles est suspendu à des hauteurs et positions différents a
l'intérieur du bâtiment. Ces deux corps dans l'espace, qui ne peuvent être compris qu'en relation l'un
avec l'autre, se fondent sur les plus basiques principes de l'astronomie et peuvent etre compris et
appréciés par tout visiteur, du débutant a l'expert. Comme centre de gravité ils deviennent naturellement les références autour lesquels tout l'espace expérientiel et institutionnel du musée doit s'orienter.
Au moment où l'acces a l'informatino devient omniprésent - les moteurs de recherche
comme Google Sky donnent un accès aisé, interactif et personalisé à une vaste quantité de data, les cinémas maison devient des plus en plus sophistiqués - le rôle d'un
planétarium publique dans l'âge des nouvelles médias doit etre interrogé.
LE CIRCUIT ORBITAL
La Circulation est critique au planétarium, non pas uniquement comme élément le plus signifiant et
fluide du programme, mais comme fonction qui guide plusieures éléments clefs du programme publique.
La direction et le mouvement du public est conçu comme un circuit orbital dans une rotation constante
et à trois dimensions autour des deux théâtres des étoiles suspendus. Le visiteur sert comme troisième
corps dans l'espace, en révolution autour les sphères dans une experience spatiale constamment changeante. La continuité de l'espace et du programme est servie par une série des rampes entrelacées.
Le panorama déployé est dans un flux constant: objets et vues sont constamment révélés et cachés par
les deux sphères pendant que les visiteurs circulent vers et depuis les théâtres, la salle d'exposition et
l'auditorium. Le mouvement à travers le planétarium est spectacle, a la fois éducationnel et expérientiel.
Quel est le rôle de la Planétarium dans le nouveu millénaire?
Le planétarium du XXème Siècle doit servir d'interface pour la découverte et
l'éducation, une experience immersive qu'engage le visiteur spatialement et activement
dans le spectacle singulier de l'espace. Le bâtiment ne peut pas se contenter de servir
uniquement en réceptacle passif d'un voyage virtuel, mais doit jouer un rôle central
dans l'experience immersive, invitant le visiteur à naviguer à travers ses programmes,
comme une métaphore pour l'espace lui-meme.
SITE
Le Planétarium est une institution culturelle et éducationnel importante dans la ville de Montréal. Il deviendra une charnière
pour le "Natural History Constellation," qu'inclus le Biodôme, le Insectarium et les Jardins Botaniques, liant ces deux sites qui
sont actuellement divisés par la rue Sherbrooke. Avec sa position proéminente sur le site et sa proximité avec le métro, le
Planétarium sera une porte iconique pour le nouveau centre culturel de Montréal.
LE BÂTIMENT EST LE MUSÉE
Le volume compact et cubique du bâtiment condense et emboîte le programme, en exploitant le positionnement
unique de deux théâtres des étoiles afin de créer une experience d'immersion. Le bâtiment est constitué de
quatre plateaux de 42mx42m qui sont empilés en vertical pour repondre aux exigences d'organisation de
l'institution. Ces plateaux inclinés connectent sans interruption les activités du bâtiment dans une experience
spatiale a le fois continu et divers.
En offrant une experience d'immersion spectaculaire, ce nouveau planétarium devient un espace actif
d'exposition en lui meme, un récit animé dans l'espace et dans le temps. Pas seulement une monotone
organisation et vitrine d'objets, le planétarium utilise à plein la présence physique des deux sphères
pour surprendre, toute en montrant les principes basiques de la position relative. Toute l'organisation du
bâtiment permet en effet aux visiteurs de comprendre ces principes de l'astronomie dans un espace bâti
en trois dimensions en se promenant autour de deux sphères. La spectaculaire experience circulaire
offre en elle meme une experience spatiale sans égal qui va émerveiller meme le spectateur le plus
distrait.
Le niveau du Pas Perdu lie les deux théâtres des étoiles avec trois plans inclinés qui permettent d'entrer et
sortir de chaque théâtre au niveau exigé. Le hall d'exposition est l'aboutissement de la séquence de circulation,
accessible du niveau du Pas Perdu en haut du bâtiment. Les bureaux du directeur, de création et le departement éducatif se trouvent a coté de l'espace d'exposition.
Concernant les demandes spécifiques du departement de conservation, ce nouveau planétarium offre
au sommet du bâtiment une hall sans précédent: un grand plan libre qui permet un maximum de flexibilité pour les differentes exigences de la collection permanente et des expositions temporaires.
ORGANISATION DU BÂTIMENT
CONCEPT DE LA FAÇADE
La façade du bâtiment évoque la poreuse mais monolithique qualité de la matière extra-terrestre qu`on peut trouver dans la
collection des météorites du planétarium. Composée d'une série de panneaux en aluminium fondé et revêtu de résine,
l'enveloppe du bâtiment est au meme temps diaphane et compact, dissimulant et dévoilant les deux sphères et les activités et
évènements qui se déroulent a l'intérieur. Depuis l'extérieur les sphères sont perçues comme des profiles nébuleux: des
subtiles silhouettes que mystérieusement surgissent derrière la surface, cachant l'intérieur avec un apparent défi de gravité.
NIVEAU D’EXPOSITION
direction et administration
centre de documentation
création multimédia
conservation et recherche
éducation
NIVEAU DE PAS PERDU
animation
technique et informatique
régie
théâtre
vers direction et
administration
THÉÂTRE DES
ÉTOILES INCLINÉ
NIVEAU DE HALL D’ACCUEIL
SALLE DES
PAS PERDUS
vers exposiition
LA COUPE
SALLE DES
PAS PERDUS
zone d'attente
entrée principale
animation
entrée du
stationnement
NIVEAU DU REZ-DE-CHAUSÉE
THÉÂTRE DES
ÉTOILES HORIZONTAL
plan de la lune,
projeté sur la
surface
salles d’animation
entreposage
aire de repas groupes
locaux pour les employés
salle électromécanique
HALL D’ACCUEIL
PRINCIPAL
billetterie
ACCÈS NIVEAU 200
ENTRÉE DU PUBLIC
zone d'entree au
stationnement a
conserver
CAFÉ
rampe à
HALL D’ACCUEIL
DES GROUPES
AUDITORIUM
limite alternative
de l'auditorium
scène rétractable
CONNECTION AU
BIODÔME DE MONTRÉAL
ACCÈS NIVEAU 100
ENTRÉE DES GROUPES
salle électromécanique
section 0
H-501-1
H-501-2
H-501-3
HALLE D'ACCUEIL
DES GROUPES
5m
BOUTIQUE
E-203-1
H-501-7
H-501-9
C-801-7
H-501-6
C-801-2
AUDITORIUM
VERS BIODOME
DE MONTREAL
CAFE
E-703-5
E-703-2
H-501-5
J-503-1
F-504-4
F-504-4
F-504-2
F-504-1
AIRE DE
REPAS
E-702-2
HALLE D'CCUEIL
PRINCIPAL
J-503-2
0-205-4
G-807-5
F504-6
THEATRE DES
ETOILES
E-703-1
H-501-4
0-706-1
J-503-3
M-705-2
SALLE D'EXPOSITION
PERMENENTE
SALLE DES
PAS PERDUS
THEATRE DES
ETOILES
B-801-1
D-401-2
M-705-3
D-401-7
A-601-2
C-605-1
B-806-2
B-806-3
D-401-1
D-401-5
B-806-6
C-808-1
A-605-1
C-808-1
B-806-7
plans 0
25m
CONCEPT DE MASSE
Le volume compact et cubique du bâtiment permet une présence iconique dans le site, toute en gardant au niveau de la rue les importantes vues latérales et cones de vision. Un bâtiment avec un socle plus bas aurait besoin d'un volume étalé, et cela bloquerait les vues les
plus importantes: celles au niveau de la rue. Bien que l`hauteur total du bâtiment est de 36m du niveau de la rue, le plus haut étage habitable est garde a 20m du niveau de la rue comme demandé par le programme du concours. L'espace d'exposition au sommet du bâtiment
constitue un signe iconique qui célèbre le planétarium sans entrer en concurrence avec le 180m de la tour du stade olympique.
87654321
Elijah Huge
78
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
COMPETITIONS
Colored hatch grounds
the drawing without
overwhelming the
project detail
Typical block configuration
Project proposal
KB-222 / 01
KB-222 / 02
GREATER BERLIN
PROPOSED FIGURE GROUND
EXISTING FIGURE GROUND
PROPOSED VOID
EXISTING VOID
EXISTING MASSING
FIGURED BLOCK
REFIGURING THE TYPOLOGY OF THE TYPICAL BERLIN BLOCK
PROPOSED MASSING
BUILDING BLOCKS
PROPOSED FIGURES
Our project challenges the idea that an expanding metropolis must either extend its borders or
completely infill. Instead, we have chosen to rewrite the rules of the Berlin block to intensify the
shared spaces of the city. To do this we have examined and carefully restructured a typical block
to celebrate inner urban courtyards, the outdoor rooms of Berlin. This design, a prototype for the
city, illustrates our idea of an innovative in-between. We call this the figured block. This configuration considers the spatial ambiguity of the in-between—between inside and outside, between
one space and another, between one room and the next—a core urban strength. We carefully
design those interstitial zones that are frequently neglected: the interior courts, porticos and
plazas that enhance civic life. Our block design pushes the explicitly defined volumes of architecture, too often found lingering inside walls, outside to play.
The Great Berlin of the future should not be a city of autonomous neighborhoods. Rather, the
city’s blocks should continuously redefine the possibility of the urban through individual and collective superimpositions of objects and events. We have designed a block that introduces voluminous shell-like geometry to intermingle with the existing masonry-like housing blocks. The
combination creates new figural poche, sharp creases and spatial transitions capable of transforming the urban narrative. We imagine that this strategy could be used with any proportion of
new and old and can be applied to enhance the city at a variety of scales. At the small scale it creates covered gardens and the larger scale offers a new skyline. The results would create a rich
urban tapestry as an arsenal of new void figures wrestled, merged and intersected with the existing blocks of the city.
Berlin, a city notable for its expansion and contraction, could finally give internal civic thresholds
and transition spaces the same attention as its peripheral urban edges. The newly figured blocks
would amplify social and spatial connections by transforming the corners and thresholds of the
city into new rooms that connect Berlin.
BERLIN THRESHOLDS
Bold white space helps
balance the intricate
project linework
NEW THRESHOLDS
MASSING/VOLUME STUDIES 01
MASSING/VOLUME STUDIES 02
MASSING/VOLUME STUDIES 03
Kristy Balliet
LINE WEIGHT AND DETAIL
Complex figures benefit from black and white lineweightheavy images. The representation technique allows the
project’s form to be best understood, while keeping
the tone of intricacy and detail. The board layout is
clean and simple, allowing the viewer a broad overview
of the project while also inviting a closer look.
79
MIXING DRAWING TYPES
l/O H a b jta ^ d i
FORECLOSURE'
A...
•
MODULE
Construction Methods
CMU Block
Beacons
I1H1HM
80
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
NETWOR
Habitable
WALL: Multi-functional
Program + Orientation
Social Collector
Structural + Infrastructural
Experience
COMPETITIONS
The center of
this perspective
drawing is darker
than the edges
SIMPLE DETAILS
EXPLORATION 3
PROGRAM: COMMUNAL NETWORK
Diversity + Scale = Resiliency
Re-purposing vacant house sites
should benefit the neighborhood,
and especially community investors.
Programs that have additional
incentive to investors is a plus.
Incentives should ideally require
some sort of engagement as well.
Vacant homes should be used
as a receptacles to input, output
and transfer existing community
networks (and grids).
The re-purposed communal network may have
varied public/private access, depending on
program involved in a specific area.
Dialogue
Existing House+Lot Ex
A typical house sits on a 60’ x 120’ (+/- 20’) lot
bound by 4-5 foot CMU block walls at its sideyard
and backyard.
The network is primarily used to harvest,
whether energy, food, pleasure, etc. It should
be productive in some way at all times. It will
begin to greet residents at their back door.
And it will begin to hack the American Dream
from an elemental, isolated lot+house to an
aggregate invested community, relying on
local resources in many aspects of life.
House ranges 1-2 story, 1200-2400 square feet, 1-4
bedroom.
INTEGRATING PAPER
The edges of the perspective
rendering are softened to become
more “drawing-like.” The soft
lines at the edge of the frame
become part of the page, letting
the drawing become a part of the
paper and board composition,
rather than placed as sticker-like
independent element.
TEXT AND DIAGRAMS
Explanatory text and diagrams
are held in the center of the board
with a pale grey box. This graphic
device helps to unify and ground
the information’s presence on the
board, as well as provide some
visual weight to lighter, smaller
pieces of information.
SIMPLE PLANS
Plans stay within a range of
detailed minimalism. Here the
focus is on the site allocation, not
the physical detail of the walls.
Recreation
Typical Existing Plan
Ex 1/16”
= 1’-0”
Agriculture
Energy
Open Space
X
through Existing House + Lot
Ax Section
1/16” = 1’-0”
Public/
Regional
Access
Private/
Local
Access
Farmer’s Market
Cold-Press Coffee Cafe
Bicycle Repair Shop
Independent Book Publisher
Yoga Studio
Electric Automobile Electrician
AZ Resource Foundation
Community Center
Graphic Design Firm
COLOR AND LINE WEIGHT
Orange is used to unify the
boards. All call-outs, text and
diagrams highlights use this same
color. Line weights are kept within
a consistent range across the
entire presentation.
Aaron Frazier
81
CONVERSATION
DUB STUDIOS
MICHAEL PIPER, PRINCIPAL / TORONTO, ON
SUBHUB
Connects downtown to the ‘burbs
DICKINSON AV. SCHOOL
TRANSIT
HUB
SUBHUBS
SUBHUB 1
Connecting train stations to public sites
such as schools, SUBHUB creates a
network of transit and acitive public spaces
throughout residential suburbia.
TRIP TO THE TRAIN
elttuhs repus
HOME
TRAIN STATION
HUB
HUB - TRAIN STATION
SUBHUB - SCHOOL
TRANSIT =
+
SUPER SHUTTLE
PASSENGER
SERVICE
TRAIN
EAST NORTHPORT MIDDLE
SUBHUB 2
Evenly dispersed
throughout long island,
schools are ideal
nodes for extending
transit and public
spaces to residential
zones.
PULASKI ROAD SCHOOL
.1/2
MIL
E
SUBHUB 3
1
TRAIN STATION
LONG
ISLAND
EAST
NORTHPORT
MICHAEL PIPER is a principal
at dub Studios—an architecture
and urban design practice in New
York and Los Angeles—and on the
faculty at University of Toronto. Piper
studies the form and organization of
contemporary metropolitan regions.
His work creates legible analysis
of complex urban organizations,
and translates these analytics into
practicable techniques that engage
architecture and city. His work has
won or placed in several design
competitions and participated in
symposia that address American
suburbs and contemporary
metropolitan regions.
82
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
SCHOOL
RESIDENTIAL RADIUS
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
You’re deeply interested in suburban form—
what representation methods do you use
to study these sites?
centers. We proposed to layer on a series
of private programs and public services
into these quasi-public structures, and
affectionately named it a general store.
At first we tried to represent all of these
MICHAEL PIPER: We apply an interest in
systems diagramming to formal conditions
in dispersed urban areas. We seek to
understand these areas by studying the
ordinary building types that systematically
repeat across an expansive area.
Frank Ruchala and I first worked with
this method in a competition entry we
called the Suburban General Store. Many of
Atlanta’s residential subdivisions have pool
houses at their center, known oxymoronically
in zoning parlance as private community
new and diverse infrastructures with a kind
of graphic complexity. Tom Alberty, an
incredibly talented graphic designer, started
work on the project and immediately helped
us pare down the ideas into discernible
layers. With Tom’s method of graphic
design, the complexity of the new
infrastructural systems was communicated,
but not at the expense of our initial idea.
As an architect, I’ve always been
interested in telling stories, in creating
as clear a picture as possible of the mess
COMPETITIONS
RAIN STATION
2
that often comes with doing building
I think that, for a long time, architecture
3
areas, seemed formally too complex to
projects. While I’ve always thought myself
as a practice has tended towards visually
think of in physical terms. The term sprawl
a pretty good storyteller, Tom showed me
manifesting the conditions of society.
comes from a frustration at the apparent
how to structure information to allow big
As cities became more spread out and
illegibility of its form. Sharing this frustration,
ideas and supportive details to coexist. The
complex after the 1970s, there seemed to
our first suburban designs worked on the
overall structure of the Suburban General
be a desire to represent that complexity.
these areas through their infrastructure and
Store graphics is pretty straightforward,
I understand why this happened, but, as
other organizational systems—looking at
almost dumb, but more intelligence is
an alternative practice, we have a desire to
commuting patterns, transportation
layered on the closer you look.
not just represent the complex conditions
networks or particular building typologies—
of culture but to somehow engage with
as sites for intervention. Through this process,
them directly, to make the underlying logic
though, we discovered that there is a logic
of complexity more legible.
and organization to the suburbs that guide
GDA: Does your interest in legibility relate
to your practice of working at larger
architectural and urban scales?
MP: Clarity certainly becomes more
important the larger a project gets—both
in terms of physicality and constituencies.
As more stakeholders become involved,
legibility becomes increasingly important.
their physical form.
GDA: A practice of engaging culture,
rather than representing it, requires
another type of visual and rhetorical
structure. A way of making arguments.
MP: Yes, I think so. For a long time the
suburbs, or dispersed metropolitan
With Highway Overlay, a project I did
during a fellowship at Ohio State, I studied
zoning as a system for effecting form.
This research looked at Columbus Ohio’s
form–based zoning code (a popular New
Urbanist tool) and critiqued the relevance
83
The Pink Path
PA R KI NG DECK
P L A NS
P
12
CONVERSATION
55
0
The Pink Path 23
P
P
C H A RAC T E R S
I N TH E LOTS 15
R EVER EN T LOT
P
P
P P
27
55
23
55
P55
0
0
12
23
23
55
15
15
0
27
27
23
Theater
Commercial
Strip
P
P
0
ST R I P LOT
Church
12
12
TH E ATER LOT
12
12
P
P
15
27
P P
P
P
P
P12
12
12
12
55
55
55
0
0
0
23
23
Synagogue
12
12
55
55
55
0
0
BU S STO P LOT
0
23
23
23
15
15
15
27
27
27
P
P
P12
15
27
Small Shops
SM ALL SH OP LOT
A RT LOT
A rt Space
B us Stop
12
12
55
55
23
15
15
15
27
27
55
0
0
0
23
23
23
15
15
15
27
27
27
27
4
of these tools at peripheral sites along
Columbus’s ring highway. Zoning was
a systematic way to study form.
Recently I’ve become very interested in
the form of suburban building typologies.
While it can be somewhat difficult to read
the overarching structure of suburban
form, one thing that is very legible is the
repetitiveness of its different elements.
Because the suburbs were constructed so
quickly—the elements of the strip mall,
public schools and regional malls, for
example—they have a very basic and
consistent DNA. Currently I’m working
with Roberto Diamani at the University
of Toronto, looking at the effects of
regional malls on their immediate
surroundings.
GDA: What representation tools are you
using to document and describe and
these repetitive suburban forms?
84
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
5
MP: We actually began by drawing the
figure ground of the suburbs, looking
specifically at regional malls. While this
isn’t a new way of drawing the city, as
the suburbs aren’t typically thought of
having legible form, we thought it would
be interesting to question this assumption.
Very quickly we understood that there
were latent organizational strategies of
the mall and the various buildings that
surround them.
Looking at aggregation requires simple
drawing techniques. To understand the
logics of accumulation, we are making
time-lapsed plan drawings that show
aggregation over time. One technique
of aggregation is what we’re calling
“crowding,” which looks at how various
building types group around a mall. For
that work we used axonometric drawings
to show how different building massings
relate to the pancake shape of the mall.
In a way, these research methods relate
back to Kevin Lynch. While Image of the
City is famous for the interviews that
engage the constituents of the city, the
underlying assertion is that the urbanist’s
jobs is to make legible that which is not.
While the city may be very complex,
Lynch sees the role of the urbanist as
someone who can tease out the formal
clarity embedded within cities. What’s
fascinating for me is that his own method
of analysis really only works in Boston—
when he studies more complex cities such
as Los Angeles or Jersey City, the method
falls apart. I really appreciate Lynch for
acknowledging this shortcoming. In doing
so, I think he opened the door for others
to contribute to research methods.
GDA: What are the ways you’re expanding
the research methods?
The Pink Path
RKI NG DEC K
PLANS
By optimizing the parking they already have, Patchouge can
reduce future parking requirements, freeing up roughly
90,000 sqft of ground
surface for other uses.
COMPETITIONS
6
MP: I worked on a project with Matthew
Allen and Ultan Byrne called Characters.
With this project we looked at clusters of
building types in suburban Toronto and
sought to map out repetitive formal parts.
The constituent parts of these characters
are similar to Lynch’s symbology for the
city. When assembled in different ways, the
characters spell out typologically similar
open spaces, but with characteristics unique
to each site. There was a desire to make
legible these repetitions in the metro area.
better understand the everyday. When I was
SUBURBAN FORMS
in graduate school and immediately after,
I took for granted the relevance of form
Images from projects studying
for urbanism. I felt there it was frivolous,
the organization and structure of
inappropriate for engaging ordinary
suburban spaces.
city space. Like many of my colleagues,
I became interested in infrastructural
systems, and in abstracted diagrammatic
1: Sub Hub. Michael Piper and
Frank Ruchala
methods to represent them. Recently,
2–3: Characters. Michael Piper,
though, there seems to be a renewed
Matthew Allen and Ultan Byrne
interest in urban form, and an emergent
return to more normative methods of
representation. Personally, I’m interested
GDA: Layering is a theme in your practice.
in trying to understand the physical space
How does layering structure your work?
of cities along with their more abstract
4–6: The Pink Path. Michael Piper,
Sarah Williams and Ultan Byrne
systems; in using figure grounds, systems
MP: I think that metro regions today are
too complex to proffer any one method
of analysis. I am interested in overlaps
between different urban practices:
negotiating systems and formal analysis to
diagrams and illustrative methods in
parallel. My interest in layering information
also drives an interest in layering different
methods of observation.
85
Page Intentionally Left Blank
presenting to an audience
presentations
PRESENTATION
STRUCTURING EVIDENCE
HOW DOES A PRESENTATION INTRODUCE AN IDEA? Step-by-step to build to an
inevitable conclusion, or with broader concepts that are broken down into clear details.
It all depends on how information is displayed and organized through the presentation.
GENERAL
SPECIFIC
A CONCEPT ABOUT AGGREGATION
EXPLAIN IT IN FURTHER DETAIL
SPECIFIC
SPECIFIC
STARTING POINT
Depending on how information
is presented, it can be helpful
to start with general or specific
details, allowing the narrative of
the project to unfold. Knowing
the audience, too, can help
direct which way to organize
the presentation.
x1
x3
x 15
BECOME MORE SPECIFIC
BREAK IT DOWN FURTHER
SPECIFIC
GENERAL
SHOW ROOF DETAILS
SUPPORT THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT
88
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
PRESENTATIONS
SEQUENCE AFFECTS INFORMATION
The same content presented different ways impacts the
way information is perceived. Will your work focus on the
technical aspects of a project? Or are you more interested
in the topological? Presenting and sequencing information
impacts the way it is understood.
SPECIFIC
GENERAL
NOTES ON:
MAKING AN
ARGUMENT
At their very center, presentations
are about making arguments. There
are many different ways to structure
information and position evidence.
x1
x3
x 15
DEDUCTIVE REASONING
starts with a general case and
deduces specific instances.
A SINGULAR UNIT
MAKES A LARGER SPACE
GENERAL
GENERAL
SYSTEMIC REASONING
is a way of understanding a whole
system. The parts are not just
analyzed, but also the relationships
between the parts.
COMPARATIVE REASONING
establishes the importance of
something by comparing it against
something else: the past with the
future, for example, or what exists
against an ideal.
AGGREGATION CONCEPT
ALSO FOUND IN THE CITY
GENERAL
SPECIFIC
INDUCTIVE REASONING
draws inferences from observations
in order to make generalizations.
DECOMPOSITION
breaks things in question into
their component parts, analyzes
them to see how they fit together,
then draws conclusions about
the whole.
CREATES A FLOATING DATUM
REINFORCED THROUGH STRUCTURE
Diagrams after Stan
Allen Architect New
Maribor Art Gallery
89
SYNTHESIS
COMPACTING MESSAGES
EVERY COMPLEX ARGUMENT HAS SUBSETS OF THEMES. In organizing a presentation
slide, consider ways to group information into more managable sections. It is not a practice of
separating information as much as reorganizing messages into similar themes.
Too many
abbreviations
START
Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) in New
York City account for about ten percent of
the Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) in the
United States. New York City has 494 (CSO)
locations, 13 of which are identified as Tier 1,
which are classified as those producing more
than 500 million gallons of waste each year.
Tier 1 CSOs contribute approximately 50%
of the 30 billion annual gallons of Combined
Sewage dumped into New York’s waterways.
TEXT BLOCK
Presenting dense information can make
anyone’s eyes quickly glaze over.
No one wants
to read your
presentation
New York City’s
Combined Sewer Overflows
• About ten percent of the Combined Sewer
Overflows (CSOs) in the United States are
found in the New York system.
• New York City has 494 (CSO) locations.
• Of those, 13 are Tier 1 CSOs, which are
those producing more than 500 mgy.
• Tier 1 CSOs contribute approximately
50% of the 30 billion annual gallons of
Combined Sewage dumped into New
York’s waterways
STARTING POINT
Information is broken into chunks via bullet points.
A title centered at the top of the slide orients
viewers to the topic.
New York City’s
Combined Sewer Overflows
About ten percent of the Combined Sewer Overflows
(CSOs) in the United States are found in the New
York system.
About ten percent of the Combined Sewer Overflows
(CSOs) in the United States are found in the New
York system.
New York City has 494 (CSO) locations.
New York City has 494 (CSO) locations.
Of those, 13 are Tier 1 CSOs, which are those
producing more than 500 mgy.
Of those 13 are Tier 1 CSOs, which are those
producing more than 500 mgy.
Tier 1 CSOs contribute approximately 50% of the 30
billion annual gallons of Combined Sewage dumped
into New York’s waterways.
Tier 1 CSOs contribute approximately 50% of the
30 billion annual gallons of Combined Sewage
dumped into New York’s waterways.
INFORMATION HIERARCHIES
Use typography and alignment to craft information:
• Text weight—bold versus light
• Spacing, centering, aligning text
• Color to focus attention
90
NYC’s CSOs
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
ADDING COLOR
Color should be used to craft information.
Be wary of color schemes that serve as
decorative highlights.
Is color shaping
information? Why
are the bullet
points green?
PRESENTATIONS
An unobtrusive line holds
the title from the text
OVERVIEW:
NEW YORK CITY’S COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS
• 10 percent of the United States’ Combined Sewer
Overflows (CSOs) are located in New York
• New York City has 494 CSOs
Bold text in color helps
• 13 of these produce 50% of the waste craft the message
• Each year, 30 billion gallons of sewage is dumped into
New York’s waterways
Lighter text with more
space between lines
EDITED
NEW YORK CITY
Combined Sewer Overflow
Combined Sewer Overflow
8pt bold / 8pt light
7pt bold +25 tracking / 9pt light grey
New York City
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
Combined Sewer Overflow
8pt bold / 7pt light tracking +50
7pt light grey / bold
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
NEW YORK CITY
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
Combined Sewer Overflow
6pt bold –25 tracking / 7pt light
7pt bold grey / 8pt light
NEW YORK CITY
Combined Sewer Overflow
Combined Sewer Overflow
8pt light +50 / bold –25 tracking
6pt light / 8pt bold grey
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
ALL ONE TYPE
The slides on these pages were made with
a single typeface—various sizes, weights,
cases, colors and spacing give shape.
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
Combined Sewer Overflow
bold
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
Combined Sewer Overflow
medium
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
Combined Sewer Overflow
light
91
ORGANIZATION
STRUCTURING COLOR
COLOR IS PERCEIVED IN RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER COLORS. Selecting
a color scheme is about balancing the background with selected colors. White
backgrounds host most colors without distraction and high contrast.
ANALOGOUS colors on the color
wheel are adjacent to one another.
COMPLEMENTARY colors on the color
wheel are opposite one another.
COMPOUND colors are more earth-toned
in nature and contain elements of all the
primary hues.
92
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
MAIN COLOR
Several color palettes can be
constructed from a single color.
PRESENTATIONS
ANALOGOUS
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
Good contrast
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
No matter how theoretically
sound, colors must work in context
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
Close, but not enough contrast
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
This has sufficient contrast, but the
atmosphere of placing soft greens
against hard black is harsh
COMPLEMENTARY
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
Good contrast
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
Contrast is OK, but that’s a lot of green
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
To achieve contrast, the background
color is used to find a new complement
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
Orange and green are legible but,
placed together against a black
background, aren’t terribly attractive
COMPOUND
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
Good contrast
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
Not enough contrast
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
Not enough contrast
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOW
50%
Same assessment for the colors
green, pink and black
93
VISUALIZING
FROM WORDS TO IMAGES
A PRESENTATION IS NOT A DOCUMENT, IT IS A VISUAL TOOL. Presenters should
never read from their slides verbatim, but rather use them as a tool for a lecture.
Solid colors
are better
than gradients
START
NYC’s Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs)
About ten percent of the Combined Sewer Overflows
(CSOs) in the United States are found in the New York
system.
New York City has 494 (CSO) locations.
Of those, 13 are Tier 1 CSOs, which are those producing
more than 500 mgy.
Tier 1 CSOs contribute approximately 50% of the 30
billion annual gallons of Combined Sewage dumped into
New York’s waterways.
TOO MANY WORDS, DECORATIVE COLOR
Avoid bulleted lists of detailed information. Too many words,
especially if they’re presented verbatim, produces a dry
presentation. Why listen when one can simply read?
Combined Sewer Overflows
New York City has 494 CSO locations, which represent
10% of US CSOs. Only 13 of these CSO’s are Tier 1
producing more than 500 mgy of waste dumped annually
into New York’s waterways.
Combined Sewer Overflows
10% percent of US CSOs are found in New York
New York City has 494 CSO locations
13 are Tier 1 CSOs, producing more than 500 mgy
30 billion gallons are dumped into NY’s waterways
50% of that waste comes from Tier 1 CSOs
BETTER COLOR, STILL TOO MANY WORDS
Rather than used as decoration, color now guides the
presentation to highlight key figures. There is still too much
text, but now color creates hierarchies of information.
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS
50% of New York’s
CSO waste comes
from only 13 CSOs
30 billion gallons of CSO waste is dumped annually into
New York’s waterways. 50% of this annual waste comes
from Tier 1 CSOs.
CONTINUE TO REGROUP
As the words are reorganized into better groups, priority
information becomes apparent. What are the key messages
to convey?
94
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
CLARIFY AND EMPHASIZE
Without a lot of extra text and information,
it is easy to understand the main point.
PRESENTATIONS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL DATA
The same information presented in two bar charts is also
presented in this three-dimensional, more picturesque
representation of information that begins to approximate
architectural volume. when you use 2-D or 3-D.
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS
50% of New York’s
CSO waste comes
from only 13 CSOs
50% of New York’s
CSO waste comes
from only 13 CSOs
STAY AWAY FROM CLIP ART
Clip art and other simple illustrations tend to present
a serious issue as childish or lighthearted.
AND THE OVERLY LITERAL
An overly accurate or literal photo can easily deter
your audience from connecting to your message.
COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS
50% of New York’s
13 CSOs =
50% of the waste
CSO waste comes
from only 13 CSOs
QUALITY STOCK IMAGES
High-quality images can emphasize
the point without distracting from the
intended message.
Solid waste never
looked so spa-like
YOUR OWN PHOTOS
Rather than use an image to illustrate
the current problem, reference a design
project that projects an optimistic future.
95
CONVERSATION
INTERBORO PARTNERS
TOBIAS ARMBORST, DANIEL D'OCA AND GEORGEEN THEODORE, PRINCIPALS/ NEW YORK, NY
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INTERBORO PARTNERS is a
New York City-based office of
architects, urban designers and
planners. Partners work together
to improve cities with innovative,
experimental design ideas. lnterboro
has won many awards for its innovative
projects, including the MoMA PSI
Young Architects Program, the
AlA New Yorlc Chapter's New
Practices Award, and the Architectt.ral
League's Emerging Voices and
Young Architects Awards.
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
How do you recognize the impacts people
When we're studying space as "Detectives,"
have on t he places t hey occupy? What kinds
looking closely, by trying to make sense of
of drawings do you make to demonstrate
what's going on. When we're designing as
"Life Coaches," we try to make suggestions
about how the site could work better.
INTERBORO PARTNERS: Our method is
When we're operating as "Ghost Writers,"
to look at existing cond itions, to observe
we try to position these observations by
developing narratives to explain how and
what's already there and to understand the
community by the different ways space is
used and designed. We're deeply interested
why a site is designed and occupied.
in what already exists, so we study what
GOA: Do your drawings change when
places look like, how people use spaces and
how they transform them. This forms the
you're operating in these different ways?
basis for how we work.
IP: We don't reserve different drawing
stand in for our design methodologies.
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
we try to understand what's going on by
these relationships?
We like to say we have three roles that
96
1
techniques for different roles because
the roles frequently overlap. One of the
PRESENTATIONS
3
EXPANDING ROLES
things we always try to represent are the
brought in all of the site constituents.
conditions that influence a site. These
Since the project was speculative, we
observations help us as we’re designing,
imagined the needs and desires of the
1: In the Meantime: Life with
but they also help people who have a stake
different actors on the site. We observed
Landbanking, winning entry to the
in those places see them in a new way.
the guy with the driving range, the dry
LA Forum for Architecture’s
Whenever we act in these different roles,
cleaner, the hot dog salesman—people for
“Dead Malls” Competition
we are taking a stance by visualizing these
whom the death of the mall brought a kind
seemingly forgotten, everyday, common
of new life. We had to develop a way to
2: Commonplace, installation for the
sites in entirely new ways.
bring these people’s desires into the project.
2012 Venice Biennale US Pavilion
Bringing other voices into the drawing
GDA: How do your drawings depict these
required a different type of drawing than,
3–6: Holding Pattern, installation for
social conditions?
say, a final rendering of the finished project.
the 2011 Young Architects Program
We needed to represent the activities that
IP: Our first project, Life with Landbanking,
had already happened, and use this as
7–8: 2009 International Architecture
established our design methodology and
the basis for how we would project the
Biennale Rotterdam
also defined the way we developed our
mall’s future. To do this, the Landbanking
drawings. First, we wanted a drawing that
drawing brought in a layer of time—the
97
CONVERSATION
4
past, present and future of the mall. For
GDA: Your drawing for the PS1 Competition
of representation and story telling—such
example, the outer ring of the axonometric
had a similar task of showing the extended
as the cartoon or bubble graphics—to
imagined the future of our design. We were
life of your design proposal.
get people’s thoughts and feelings into a
speculating about how our interventions
would transform as economic conditions
changed. When we were invited by the
Walker Art Center to exhibit our proposal
for Landbanking, we presented the project
as a series of projections on a base of the
existing mall. Since we were talking about
design that would change over time, we
wanted the model also to be temporary.
The drawing also brought in people,
their interests and personalities. The
Landbanking project shows the different
constituents we observed on the site,
demonstrates our design strategies and
shows how those elements interact with
each other.
98
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
drawing. It’s not just about the building
IP: The PS1 drawing shows moments
in the future when our project is being
enacted on, engaging with the public and
changing. What happens after architecture
is constructed? At that stage architecture
is based more in time and processes. It
interacts with people and sometimes
its value changes—when the building is
finished, it’s not complete but will instead
change and adapt over time.
It’s interesting to define our role by
thinking about what comes before we
enter the scene and also by what happens
after. That way of thinking about a
design’s future requires different types
but about how people respond to the work.
GDA: How do people respond to your
work, both as drawings or built projects?
IP: We believe architecture should be
friendly, it should open, it should be
something that engages the community
in which it’s centered. And when
architecture becomes open and
collaborative, there are some people
that say “that’s not ‘architectural.’”
A comment on one of the blogs for
the PS1 courtyard project asked
“Where’s the architecture?”
PRESENTATIONS
5
We don’t think architectural drawings
6
the previous entries, everyone has shown
because the organization of the map on
need to be communicating to other
the courtyard at a 45 degree angle, which
the wall is a significant part of how we
architects. We should be connected to
means the courtyard has always been
were designing the relationships between
more people. We use these drawing
shown in the same way. We realized that
the pieces. In this way the map is similar to
techniques to engage a broader range of
view wasn’t giving us the entire courtyard,
our previous axonometrics. We had a
people into the process. We’re expanding
which was funny because no one had
collection of communities, conditions and
the role of the architect.
ever done anything in this front space.
locations and we wanted to show how they
We thought if we could show the space in
related to each other. We didn’t want to
a new way, we could show how we were
show a map of the United States because
using the courtyard in a new way. It was
the exhibition space was very long and
a beautiful moment when we flipped the
narrow, and we wanted to fill the corridor.
drawing because now we could see the
We also didn’t want to show the sites in
entire courtyard and see our entire project.
relationship to other sites, or show states
GDA: Would you say that the way you
draw the site influences the way you
approach the design?
IP: When we drew the courtyard at
PS1, we tried using a more conventional
architectural drawing, but we shifted it
slightly and arranged it in a flattened
way. We tried to make this drawing so
there was confusion between the spaces
in the courtyard. We did this to see those
spaces in a new way. In looking back at
against states. We also had a series of case
GDA: How do you organize information at
different scales and with different modes
of representation?
studies and we didn’t want to represent
them as a serial (Case Study One, Two,
etc.). For us, the space between the
communities was not important. We
IP: Our proposal for the Rotterdam
Biennale was an interesting project
wanted to show how they related to each
other conceptually than geographically.
99
CONVERSATION
Photo by Michelle Wilderom
7
We made an imaginary road trip to
The visitor experienced these different
We started by crafting five tours
connect all of these places. The space on
communities and techniques as they
through The Arsenal since visitors may
the wall isn’t a real space, but it’s an
walked through the exhibition. It was a
not want to read everything A to Z. Tour
imagined space that holds these different
big and very exciting project for us.
Number One is about understanding why
America is so racially segregated. So all of
conditions together. We also had to layer
different drawing types together to depict
the conditions, changing between plan and
elevation. We also used a colored-lense
GDA: The Arsenal presents differently from
some of your other projects. Is this because
it’s primarily text?
The second part of the exhibition
included The Arsenal of Inclusion and
Exclusion, which outlines physical and
planning techniques that influence
settlement. Each “weapon” of inclusion
and exclusion is posted as a dictionary
entry, A to Z, which is opposite the long
map. The exhibition was foundational to
how we thought about displaying this
work, how to reveal and demonstrate
these different types of information.
100 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
are stamped number one. Number Two is
about the role of the Fair Housing Act.
By giving different slices of information,
technique to bring more detailed
information into the wall graphic.
the techniques that enhance segregation
IP: We developed this project with Thumb
Design who also collaborated with us on
Holding Pattern. Together we thought of
presenting The Arsenal as a dictionary,
organizing all of the tools alphabetically.
Since all of the techniques are weapons
that make inclusion or exclusion in
communities, we wanted an even rhythm
to the presentation. Nothing has more
prominence than anything else, which
made the entries seem all the more
stark and powerful.
visitors make their own exhibition books.
This collection is about the arrangement
of different elements. How do you exhibit
a lot of text? All at once and exaggerated?
We used a really big serif typeface to
explain the weapons, and also to make it
feel more like an encyclopedia, dictionary
or library. The exhibition space is made out
of an unfolded dictionary and has elements
from a domestic library.
Another element that we’re interested in
is our graphic techniques. In Holding
PRESENTATIONS
Photo by Noit Zakay
8
Pattern, for example, we were exploring
authority of the library or the museum and
about material and form, but to advocate
the role of the museum label. So we made
asking these institutions to become part of
for other outcomes. Generally, it becomes
them super large and they were used as
the community.
more and more important for architects
to do work before and after the actual
reserve tags to identify the objects’ future
owners. We appropriated the museum
label and then blew it up and changed
its content to become something more
accessible. It was the same case at the
GDA: As your practice has grown, the
projects become more complex and
stakeholders more diverse, how have
your drawings evolved?
other disciplines and tweaking them to
make them more accessible and a little bit
new. We’re interested in representation
that comes from outside of architecture.
We take pleasure in looking at these other
things and transforming them into
something new for architecture. We like
to use elements that are outside of
architecture so people can understand
the tools and processes we’re engaging.
In this way we’re also challenging the
for something later or earlier in the process.
The traditional architecture documents
are somewhat limited in describing the
beginnings and ends of architecture.
NAI with our dictionary and library. We’re
playing with these graphic techniques from
building. You can speculate or advocate
IP: In practice today there’s a race to
the bottom. People tend to send their
technical drawings out to other places to
be rendered, so the value of being able to
represent your ideas is decreasing. One
of the best things architects can do is to
advocate for and communicate their ideas.
And having more skills to become inventive
with how ideas are demonstrated, that
helps our creativity. We use architectural
drawings not just to make technical
documents or spectacular statements
We’re interested in how to demonstrate
perceptions, observations, feelings that
help people become interested in ideas
they had not previously considered. How
we communicate and advocate those ideas
is increasingly important to our practice
and the discipline.
101
Page Intentionally Left Blank
presenting work
books
PRODUCTION
PRINTING TECHNOLOGY
HAND-PRINTING PRESS
Type is set, inked and pressed onto paper, producing
single sheets at a time (each sheet, or signature, may
contain several pages). For each color change, a new
plate is inked and pressed onto the same page.
FOUR COLOR
Light ink on
dark paper
Gutenberg’s sheets were
pressed twice—first
with black ink then a
second pass with red ink
Four-color printing
means each image
is printed with four
distinct inks
CYAN
MAGENTA
YELLOW
BLACK
RTL
RTL
71 x 11
91 x 31
DIGITAL PRINTING
On a four-color press, each image is printed with a
separate layer of ink which builds into a composite.
This is why you need to convert your RGB images to
CMYK when prepping files for press production.
104 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
BOOKS
To print the magazine with fluorescent inks, but
to stay within a four-color budget, typical inks
were swapped with custom Pantone colors
RUN 1: 802U + BLACK
RUN 2: 804U + BLACK
802U
804U
805U
801U
BLACK
VARNISH
TESTING THE LIMITS
Knowing how printing technology works
allows the designer to engage the printing
process. Meeting with subcontractors and
discussing the potentials allows for better
professional collaborations.
A series of 2-color signatures are
printed and assembled together
to create a "4-color" magazine
105
FORM
BOOK ERGONOMICS
BOOKS HAVE A PHYSICAL PRESENCE. As they are held in the hand and experienced
with our eyes, they relate to the human body. Because books are far more dense and physical
than portfolios, designing a book’s physical presence—mass, weight and structure—is part of
designing a book’s message. Books sequence information, but they also have a permanence—
they mobilize performance and make physical architectural ideas.
SMALL BOOKS
Since small books fit into the hand and are meant to
be enjoyed by one person at a time, they are personal
and have an intimacy. One’s engagement with small
A5
US TRADE
5.833" X 8.24"
6" X 9"
books is more akin to trade paperbacks—meant to be
seen by the individual, not a group, and pored over in
an intimate way. Small books are personal.
US TRADE
6" x 9"
15.24cm x
22.86cm
A5
5.833" x 8.24"
14.817cm x
20.99cm
STANDARD BOOKS
Standard book sizes have a different physical quality than
small books. Their mass and weight require two hands to
hold the object rather than just one. When opened, the
page spread takes on a larger territory.
CROWN
QUARTO
7.444" X 9.681"
US LETTER
8.5" x 11"
21.59cm x
27.94cm
A4
8.264" x 11.694"
20.99cm x
29.70cm
CROWN QUARTO
7.444" x 9.681"
18.91cm x
24.589cm
106 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
ROYAL
6.139" x 9.21"
15.593cm x
23.389cm
POCKET
4.25" x 6.875"
10.795cm x
17.463cm
BOOKS
NOTES ON:
OPEN VERSUS CLOSED
LANDSCAPE
When opened, books have a very
7" x 9"
different quality. The territory of the
page set-up dramatically changes.
A landscape page has a much
OPENED LANDSCAPE
different proportion than a spread
7" x 18"
of two landscape pages.
BINDINGS
FOR BOOKS
Because books are longer, have
more pages and don’t need to
18"
quickly disseminate a lot of visual
information in just a few pages,
they can afford different bindings
than portfolios.
7"
HARD COVERS
Case-wrapped books provide a
solid shell for the interior pages.
Their durability allows the book to
open without cracking the spine.
Larger gutter
ONE HAND OR TWO
Book sizes relate to the scale of the
body and how it fits into your hand,
how far it is held from your face and
how much content, images and text
occupy the page.
SOFT COVERS
Paperback books are perfect
bound, so as a result don’t lie flat
when opened. Due to their physical
limits, the interior margin needs to
be considered when designing the
book. If designing a small, perfectbound book, the margin is going to
take on a different territory than a
larger perfect-bound book.
Larger margins
When setting up
the page margins
and gutters,
consider how the
book will be held
SEWN BINDINGS
Sewn bindings are the most
durable type and are when the
book block is actually sewn with
thread before binding. Sewing the
book block ensures the binding
doesn’t crack, which can happen
on larger glue-bound books or
books that are opened and closed
hundreds of times.
107
STRUCTURE
PACING AND SEQUENCE
DIFFERENT TYPES OF PAGES HOLD DIFFERENT TYPES OF INFORMATION.
Page types coordinate a book’s pacing by varying the way content is displayed,
giving a book hierarchy and structure.
INTRO PHOTO ESSAY
Black and white images on toned
paper announce each new section.
Small captions annotate the
images, giving another layer of
interpretation.
INTRO CONTEXT ESSAY
Essay contextualizes the proceeding
visual essay. Toned paper is a
slightly lighter in color than the
visual essay. Large-sized sans serif
text is set in one column.
EXAMPLE PROJECTS
Starts with an introductory photo
that spans a two-page spread. Large
and medium-sized photos are used.
Two columns of serif body text
describe the projects.
20
15
spreads
10
5
Found Ice Berlin
SECTION INTRODUCTION
PROJECTS
Form Photos
Found Ice Berlin
Form Essay
64
108 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
84
Biblioteca Espana
Biblioteca Espana
Museo Territorio
BOOKS
Essay pages are filled with text
and contain smaller images,
while gallery spreads have
larger images and fewer words
INTERVIEW
Dialogue between participants. A
single column of serif body text is
indented to describe the dialogue. A
selection of smaller black and white
images illustrate the discussion.
ESSAY
Critical and historic overview
to the section topic. Serif body
text is set in a single column.
Larger black and white images
Museo Territorio
Interview
On Mountains
CONCLUDING PROJECT
Deep inquiry into focused project.
Blue pages with darker blue type,
full-bleed images.
The Great Rock
CRITICAL ESSAYS
On Mountains
124
132
136
The Great Rock
167
179
Stan Allen and Mark McQuade. Landform Building: Architecture’s New Terrain. (Baden: Lars Muller, 2011)
109
STRUCTURE
PAGE GRIDS
ONE GRID SYSTEM CAN ORGANIZE MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONTENT. A
12-column grid can accommodate two, three, four and six page divisions as well as organize
a variety of image and text sizes. Flexible grid systems can adapt to many circumstances.
Landform Building, designed by Thumb
Page grids provide
structure and flexibility.
The grid for this book
organizes many different
types of content, such as
critical essays, interviews
and photo galleries
Prototypical grid for Landform Building book
110
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
BOOKS
ENDLESS VARIATION
Books have to manage a lot of different types of content. In this
book, scholarly articles, photo galleries, contextualizing essays
and large images are all managed with the same grid system,
giving a cohesive presentation to a variety of information.
Essay with large images
Full-bleed image with caption
Large photo with title
Smaller images, large text
Essay – mostly text
Images with text
111
ORGANIZATION
STRUCTURING THE PAGE
SEVERAL METHODS CAN ESTABLISH THE RELATIONSHIPS between page edge and
text. How you set up the logic of page margins can be systematic, such as some of the classical
proportional systems suggested, or more intuitive, based on your own sense of balance.
3
1 Set the diagonals across the spread
4
Strike a line straight
up from the diagonals’
intersection and connect
to the opposite page
start
end
start
3
end
2 and across each page.
4
From the intersection of the page and
spread diagonals, draw a line across
until it hits the spread diagonal.
a
THE GOLDEN RATIO
This proportional system of squares and
rectangles is based on the Fibonacci sequence,
and can be found in nature, Western art and
architecture (Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein, for
example or The Mona Lisa). A distinctive
feature of this shape is that when a square
section is removed, the remainder is another
golden rectangle; that is, with the same aspect
ratio as the first. Hence a : b = b : (a+b).
b
a : b = b : (a+b)
112
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
J. A. VAN DE GRAAF CANON
This classic text-block-to-page-size
proportioning system is less relevant to
contemporary practice, but recognizing
its origins allows for reinvention. After
studying books designed between 1450
and 1500, Van de Graaf discovered a
consistency in how the text block was
placed in relationship to the page size.
This diagram results in the top left
corner and the inside margin always
being 1/9th from the top and the
inside margin, producing a consistently
balanced text block.
Jan Tschichold refers
to this system as a
“method to produce
the perfect book”
BOOKS
1”
½”
½”
¾”
1”
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veriure dolorero duipit, quat.
DEFAULT MARGINS
When placing text on a page, avoid the default setting
of an even margin around the perimeter of each page
edge. Pages should be thought about as spreads, and as
physical devices collected into a book. Gutters, edges,
page titles and headers influence the placement of text.
X X
X
¾”
DESIGNED MARGINS
A wider gutter allows for pages to hinge in the center.
Margins of different widths at the top of the page versus
the bottom allow for headers and footers.
X
X
12-COLUMN GRID
The simple 12-column grid
allows for many subdivisions.
It can be easily broken into two,
three, four or six subdivisions.
Margins are proportional to the
interior grid, and can even be
incorporated into the overall
page structure. This 12-columnn
grid allows for maxiumum
flexibility, easily combining
images and text.
1
1
1
2
2
3
1
1
4
2
2
3
3
4
5
6
2X
2X
Taller page foot is very
modern and allows for more
room for page numbers,
book titles and navigation
113
TYPOGRAPHY
SETTING TYPE
TEXT IS A SYSTEM, NOT AN OBJECT. As a result, the rules of alignment, spacing and
proportion are dynamic in order to respond to the ever-changing spaces produced by text.
STEP ONE
Text needs to be designed, not
just automatically placed using
document default settings.
• Type size is too large
• Leading is too solid
• Double-justified paragraph
creates rivers in the text body
• Nominal weight difference
between title and body text
CHANGING SCALE
• Leading is still too solid
• Right paragraph rag is choppy
• Line length is too long
• Avoid widows (single words
on a single line)
HARBORPORT
Double justification creates
rivers of space in paragraphs
Harborport links New York’s water management
systems with transportation networks at several scales
of infrastructure and connectivity. First, the proposal
seeks to mitigate combined sewer overflow (CSO)
pollution with new subway and ferry connections. The
2014 Clean Tech Expo serves as the public platform
for this new investment in infrastructure and water
health. Following the Expo, facilities are expanded
through collection of river dredge materials toward the
construction of a new airport to serve the metro area.
HARBORPORT
Choppy rag
Harborport links New York’s water management systems with
transportation networks at several scales of infrastructure and connectivity.
First, the proposal seeks to mitigate combined sewer overflow (CSO)
pollution with new subway and ferry connections. The 2014 Clean Tech Expo
serves as the public platform for this new investment in infrastructure and water
health. Following the Expo, facilities are expanded through collection of river
dredge materials toward the construction of a new airport to serve the metro
area.
Watch out for orphans
TYPES OF TYPE
Perfect!
• Type size is slightly decreased
• Leading is increased
• Ironically, as type gets smaller,
leading often gets larger
HARBORPORT
Keep line length to eight
to ten words per line
Harborport links New York’s water management systems with
transportation networks at several scales of infrastructure and
connectivity. First, the proposal seeks to mitigate combined sewer
overflow (CSO) pollution with new subway and ferry connections.
The 2014 Clean Tech Expo serves as the public platform for this new
investment in infrastructure and water health. Following the Expo,
facilities are expanded through collection of river dredge materials
toward the construction of a new airport to serve the metro area.
114
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
BOOKS
WIDOWS AND ORPHANS
NOTES ON:
DASH TYPES
Avoid leaving single lines of text (orphans) or single words
(widows) on lines by themselves.
Harborport links New York’s water management systems with
transportation networks at several scales of infrastructure and
connectivity.
HYPHENS connect a sequence of
numbers, such as a phone number.
614-555-1234
Watch out for orphans
EN DASHES are longer than
Eliminate orphans by either changing the length of the type box.
Original length
regular dashes (the length of the
letter “n”) and are used several ways:
• A range of values with clearly
Harborport links New York’s water management
defined limits.
systems with transportation networks at several
From 11:00am–1:00pm
scales of infrastructure and connectivity.
For ages 3–5
• To contrast values or illustrate
Or adjusting the overall tracking to sneak another word onto the line.
Harborport links New York’s water management systems with
transportation networks at several scales of infrastructure
and connectivity.
Increasing tracking pushes “and” to the next line
a relationship.
Smoot–Hawley Tariff
Boston beat New York 22–0
• For compound attributives in
which one or both elements is
itself a compound.
The ex–prime minister
Pritzker Prize–winning building
Don’t leave single lines of text on their own paragraph line.
Avoid widows
Harborport links New York’s
water management systems
with transportation networks at
several scales of infrastructure and
connectivity. First, the proposal
seeks to mitigate combined sewer
overflow (CSO) pollution with new
subway and ferry connections.
The 2014 Clean Tech Expo serves
as the public platform for this
new investment in infrastructure
and water health. Following the
Expo, facilities are expanded
EM DASHES are the length of an
“m” character and are frequently
used mid-sentence to demarcate a
break of thought or interruption.
She was suddenly in a position to
call those associates—and invite
them to apply to her for jobs.
Adjust the text box, gutter width and / or tracking to help align text.
Harborport links New York’s
water management systems
with transportation networks at
several scales of infrastructure and
connectivity. First, the proposal
seeks to mitigate combined sewer
overflow (CSO) pollution with new
subway and ferry connections.
The 2014 Clean Tech Expo serves
as the public platform for this new
investment in infrastructure and
water health. Following the Expo,
facilities are expanded through
collection of river dredge materials
toward the construction of a new
airport to serve the metro area.
• An en dash surrounded by
spaces achieves the same effect
as an em dash with no spaces.
However, some feel this option is
typographically less disruptive.
She was suddenly in a position to
call those associates – and invite
them to apply to her for jobs.
115
TYPOGRAPHY
POINT SIZE, LEADING AND MEASURE
POINT SIZE, LEADING AND MEASURE contribute to the overall tone and density of how
words appear on the page. Slight adjustments to these relationships can dramatically change
how type appears.
LEADING
When fonts are set manually, strips
of lead are added between lines of
type to give them added space. The
term “leading,” the amount of space
between text lines, comes from the
strips of lead used to create space
in the composing stick.
Leading
Slug
A composing stick
assembles pieces
of metal type
Metal type
Slabs align
POINT SIZE IS RELATIVE
10 points in one typeface can be
relative to 9 points in another. Pick
a type size that looks right to you
rather than rely on a typical size.
Need more help? Compare a printed
test sample of your text to the size,
leading and color of type used in a
magazine article.
Harborport links New York’s
water management systems
Chronicle, Roman, 9 pt
Harborport links New York’s
water management systems
Garamond, Regular, 10 pt
116
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
KERNING AND TRACKING
Kerning adjusts the spacing
between individual letters to
achieve a more legible, visually
pleasing result. Kerning adjusts
the space between individual
letter forms, while tracking
adjusts spacing uniformly
over a range of characters.
Slabs overlap
Av Av
No kerning
Kerning
Avery Library
No kerning
Avery Library
Kerning
Tracking variations
Avery Library’s collection in
architecture literature is among the
largest in the world.
0
Avery Library’s collection in architecture -25
literature is among the largest in the world.
Avery Library’s collection in
architecture literature is among the
largest in the world.
+20
BOOKS
SMALL ADJUSTMENTS
Slight changes between point size and leading
can dramatically impact paragraph “color,” the
appearance of type’s texture on the page.
8 point / 12 leading
Lines read as a paragraph
Harborport links New York’s water management
systems with transportation networks at several scales
of infrastructure and connectivity. First, the proposal
seeks to mitigate combined sewer overflow (CSO)
pollution with new subway and ferry connections. The
2014 Clean Tech Expo serves as the public platform
for this new investment in infrastructure and water
health. Following the Expo, facilities are expanded
through collection of river dredge materials toward the
construction of a new airport to serve the metro area.
8 point / 14 leading
Harborport links New York’s water management
systems with transportation networks at several scales
of infrastructure and connectivity. First, the proposal
seeks to mitigate combined sewer overflow (CSO)
pollution with new subway and ferry connections. The
2014 Clean Tech Expo serves as the public platform
for this new investment in infrastructure and water
health. Following the Expo, facilities are expanded
through collection of river dredge materials toward the
construction of a new airport to serve the metro area.
Too much space—lines no
longer read as a paragraph
Harborport links New York’s water management
systems with transportation networks at several scales
of infrastructure and connectivity. First, the proposal
seeks to mitigate combined sewer overflow (CSO)
pollution with new subway and ferry connections.
The 2014 Clean Tech Expo serves as the public
platform for this new investment in infrastructure and
water health. Following the Expo, facilities are expanded
through collection of river dredge materials toward the
construction of a new airport to serve the metro area.
8 point / 11 leading
9 point / 11 leading
Harborport links New York’s water management
systems with transportation networks at several
scales of infrastructure and connectivity. First,
the proposal seeks to mitigate combined sewer
overflow (CSO) pollution with new subway
and ferry connections. The 2014 Clean Tech
Expo serves as the public platform for this new
investment in infrastructure and water health.
Following the Expo, facilities are expanded
through collection of river dredge materials
toward the construction of a new airport to
serve the metro area.
10 point / 14 leading
10 point / 9 leading
Harborport links New York’s water
management systems with transportation
networks at several scales of infrastructure
and connectivity. First, the proposal seeks
to mitigate combined sewer overflow
(CSO) pollution with new subway and ferry
connections. The 2014 Clean Tech Expo
serves as the public platform for this new
investment in infrastructure and water
health. Following the Expo, facilities are
expanded through collection of river dredge
materials toward the construction of a new
airport to serve the metro area.
Harborport links New York’s water
management systems with transportation
networks at several scales of infrastructure
and connectivity. First, the proposal seeks
to mitigate combined sewer overflow
(CSO) pollution with new subway and ferry
connections. The 2014 Clean Tech Expo
serves as the public platform for this new
investment in infrastructure and water
health. Following the Expo, facilities are
expanded through collection of river dredge
materials toward the construction of a new
airport to serve the metro area.
Text is the same point size,
but looks very different
depending on the leading
117
CONVERSATION
THUMB
LUKE BULMAN, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR / NEW YORK, NY
Expanded Mies
LUKE BULMAN is founder and
director of Thumb, a Brooklynbased graphic design office that
was organized in 2007 by partners
Luke Bulman and Jessica Young.
Thumb works on public, private
and self-initiated projects, usually
in the areas of architecture, art,
design and culture. The projects
featured on these spreads are
part of courses taught at the
Yale School of Architecture.
118
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
You design books primarily, and many
for architects. How has your architectural
education in architecture helped you with
your current work?
The image is the way I frame an argument.
LUKE BULMAN: One of the ways I’ve
approached graphic design is through
images. Most of the graphic designers I know
have been trained to think about words, a
structuralist approach to typography. I’ve
never approached graphic design this way,
or learning about architecture in this way.
For me, it’s about images: looking at images
of architecture, paintings, photographs, etc.
organize books?
I’ve always thought about the image as the
basis of graphic design. That is the way I’ve
linked to architecture.
GDA: In your practice, how do images
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
LB: We did a book about David Adjaye’s
work including some of the studios he taught
at Princeton. Different artists were invited to
contribute. The book is divided into different
pieces—Adjaye’s work, work by the invited
artists, essays, texts by the artists, parts of
conversations, further essays, student works.
BOOKS
256 Images of Architecture
The book forms a repetition. In between
give an open structure to the book. The
people to find something in the book. The
each structure are image sets showing the
structure is not as vibrant or casual as
difference between watching a New Wave
interaction between art and architecture.
S,M,L,XL, but there’s an open figure to it.
film versus a Hollywood film, for example,
Everyone in this book is arguing for
something more integrated, where art and
architecture become blurred. The blurring
of that intellectual line gives a way to think
about blurring the lines of the structure of
is that not everything is explained. I try
GDA: Open figure is a highly architectural
term. It strikes me that you speak about
books with other architectural terms—
structure, flow, figure, for example.
the book. This book has different types of
content, which is set in different scales of
type, is assembled with different types of
paper—some more like newsprint, others
shinier and in full color—the images are
placed in different ways depending on
the types of conversations. These choices
to make productive frictions between
things. I try to make things so much
themselves that, when they’re placed next
to something different or unexpected, the
reader has to resolve those differences.
LB: It’s a way of talking about the nature
of the content, and that by extension I’m
always looking for a way to connect the
content to the book to its design. I want
to leave the structure open enough, not
resolved enough, so there are places for
The book is deploying things in time, not
just spatially, so it’s a matter of how closely
you time those differences for the reader.
Book design is about you handle the space,
but it is how you design the time between
spreads that produces meaning.
119
CONVERSATION
16,392 Images That Matter to Architecture
This exhibition at the
2013 New York Art Book Fair
was funded by Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown
with support from Yale School of Architecture
GDA: How is your work spatial?
LB: I think of my work as very very 2D and
4D, and not much 3D at all. There are some
aspects of the physical book object that I
think about as 3D, but not really. This isn’t
where my work is creative. I think about the
deployment of the spreads, I don’t really
think about how they compile to make a
book form.
GDA: How do books contribute to your
understanding of architecture?
LB: I’ve been teaching a class on books
and architecture at Yale for five years. One
of the projects in the seminar is called 256.
It asks students to gather together 256
images that matter to architecture.
Everybody has to decide for themselves
what those images are—it is a research
project is research to figure out what
120 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
matters to architecture. Once you have
compared to S,M,L,XL, which figures really
these images, how do you structure and
strongly in that depiction of life. You have
sequence them so they have meaning?
pictures of men’s underwear, artwork,
The projects become a psychic register
dialogue, cartoons, different types of
of architecture subconsciousness.
histories of materials and the lexicon. It
I’ve been obsessed with this book, Mies
describes the world and how the practice
van der Rohe by Werner Blaser. He did
fits into the world. These connections are
several books on Mies, he was from Basel,
what make it enduring—it has an openness.
he worked in Mies’s office and did a book
That’s the type of book I’m trying to
when he was there and a whole bunch of
do. For the seminar at Yale, I proposed we
other books just documenting the work.
take the Mies book, crack it open and let
It’s a super simple book, just documenting
it drift. We reproduced the Mies book on
the work. There’s nothing graphically tricky
grey paper and everyone in the seminar
going on here, it just presents the work.
contributed sections to the book printed on
There are a few images that have a handful
yellow paper. We tried to bring the material
of people in them, but for the most part
up to date. In between the invention of the
the book is just images of buildings. It's
TV dinner, the beginning of Burger King,
sterile, simple, there’s no noise—almost
we open the material up to other things
pure signal.
that were happening at the same time.
This book is simultaneously interesting
It tests the idea Mies put forward—that
to me but also dead. There’s nothing
architecture reflects the time. Is Mies’s work
animating it, there’s no life in this book,
an expression of the time he worked in?
BOOKS
GDA: The design of the book is a way to
mark changing cultural contexts.
LB: That’s one of the things that’s really
missing right now—context for ideas. No
one seems to take that very seriously right
now. I participate in a lot of architecture
portfolio workshops and I don’t see much
effort towards producing documentation
or proof of concepts. I’m finding that, as
we move further into digitization, we are
demonstrating technological ability more
than conceptual documents. People are
not thinking about communication issues
as much as they used to.
GDA: Why do you think there is that shift
away from communication? What is being
discussed instead?
LB: I think there’s a switch in the modality
of working for architects. BIM software
or any kind of programming environment
the slide-type presentation is the big
shifts the location of where the discourse
view, the extent of what to look at. This is
happens. Currently in architecture reviews,
an important concept, to know the outer
students will likely pin up their Grasshopper
edges of the idea and to talk through
diagrams which become the documents
details that support the concepts. We need
used to discuss the relative competency
to engage with the rhetoric of presentation,
of the work. There’s less output towards
with modes of organizing information.
traditional modes of representation and
increasingly towards the tectonic of the
GDA: You’re advocating for structure.
functioning diagram as proof of concept.
LB: It’s about understanding the
GDA: Increased technological specification
has impacted communication—how can
architects reclaim presentation techniques?
underlying structure of how we organize
things. We organize things by scale,
typologies, etc. There’s an art to these
discussions. It's not about software—
LB: We’ve relied on the simultaneous
procession through our work for so long
—put everything up on the wall and then
walk the jury through the work. Now
we make presentations through slides
that emphasize a temporal procession
through the work. The thing we lose in
that’s only a tool to achieve the larger
goal. We have to take modes of rhetoric
and deploy them with new technologies.
It is not about describing the design
process but about finding ways to
capture peoples’ imaginations.
121
Page Intentionally Left Blank
architectural communication
diagrams
FORMS
THESE ARE THE SHAPES
SOME DIAGRAMS DESCRIBE THE FORM OF ARCHITECTURE, either abstractly or
directly, by emphasizing a building’s figural characteristics. These diagrams explain the
geometric qualities of a building, showing how the architect composed the building’s figures,
openings and thresholds. “Form diagrams” are useful for helping in understanding geometric
and spatial relationships between building components.
“Contradiction between
exterior and interior”
“Analogous
and attached”
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
DETACHED LAYERS
As Robert Venturi wrote in
Complexity and Contradiction,
“Contradiction between the inside
and outside may manifest itself
in an unattached lining and the
exterior wall.” The plan diagrams
above demonstrate that the “inside
space and the outside space can
be more or less contrasting in
shape, position, pattern and size.”
Temple of Horus, Edufu, Egypt
“Detached”
Rouen Cathedral, France
“Semi-detached”
124 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
Aalto. Baker House, USA
“Detached from front to back”
DIAGRAMS
Plan of Chateau de Chambord
INSIDE / OUTSIDE
Doug Graf’s essay “Diagrams”
establishes the possibility of
“knowing architecture” through
a dialogue of “object and type,
types and typologies.” These
plan diagrams of Chambord,
for example, explore the formal
and spatial relationships of the
perimeter to the center, the parts
to the whole, unity and closure.
As the diagrams suggest, there
are many ways to understand the
forms, relationships and shapes
that compose a building.
Doug Graf’s investigations of Chambord’s
perimeter-to-center, part-to-whole relationships
SIMILAR SHAPES
Even though the Venturi House and the
Temple of Uffizi appear very different, their
formal diagrams are similar. As Graf writes,
“The recurring theme… suggest the usefulness
of a diagrammatic model that displays its
categorizing process.”
“Presence–absence,
barrier–passage,
opposites–equals”
125
DECISIONS
HOW I GOT TO THE SHAPES
DIAGRAMMING THE PROCESS OF GENERATING ARCHITECTURE, versus unearthing
the relationships between elements, positions the diagram as a tool for formal decision making.
These diagrams offer insight into how the architect has made decisions about a building’s form.
Sometimes esoteric (Peter Eisenman), other times more straight forward (Bjarke Ingles Group),
“step-by-step diagrams” make it is easy to read the architect’s form-making process.
Thick, thin and
dashed lines help
diagrams read
Diagrams after
Eisenman House Studies
REPETITION
As Eisenman writes, “The diagram is not
only an explanation... but it also acts as an
intermediary in the process of generating
real space and time.” These rigorous diagrams
index the architect’s inquiry into the formal
potential of a cube, layering lines and edges
to explore the potential architecture of the
final form of the building.
126 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
DIAGRAMS
THINKING IN LAYERS
NOTES ON:
Processing volumes through line weight, shading
and color help explain the formal operations.
Exterior line
weight is thicker
than interior
ACTIVE
ARROWS
Like typefaces, arrow styles
communicate different intentions.
Each computer program has a
different language of arrows.
If the arrow is wide and flat or
thin and delicate, these give
tone and intention to a drawing.
SIMPLE WIDE
1. OUT OF THE BOX
Straight out of the modeling
program, the axon has only one line
weight. It is flat and dimensionless.
2. ADD LINE WEIGHT
A simple black-and-white axon
with clear line weights help give
dimension and space.
Flat, graphic and without any nuance,
the simple wide arrow has different
weights and postures depending on
line weight and texture.
CURVED / BARBED
Curves and barbs have more
nuance and shape, communicating
delicate elegance.
3. ADD HATCHING
A light gradient or texture hatch
further emphasizes the volume.
90
Diagrams after
Bjarke Ingles Group
4. ADD ARROWS, TEXT AND COLOR
Graphic elements can help describe
movement and other transformations.
SIMPLE AND SOLID
102
90
102
Some stroke weights are better
suited to certain types of arrow
head. A delicate stroke can look
off-centered, or perfectly balanced,
with a particular arrow head.
127
RELATIONSHIPS
HOW THE PIECES RELATE
DIAGRAMS CAN REVEAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COMPONENTS. Pulling apart
a large building, landscape or other project shows how different elements configure with
one another. These diagrams emphasize the idea of how the shapes relate, depicting how
organizational strategies relate to the whole.
STRUCTURE AND SKIN
Pulling apart architecture
reveals its complexity. What
appears as a straightforward
wall is actually a dense network
of structure and material.
The architecture’s assembly
is foregrounded with a
diagram that reveals its
individual components.
Serpentine Pavilion, Toyo Ito
Pierscape, Navy
Pier Chicago,
James Corner
Field Operations
128 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
LANDSCAPE COMPONENTS
The complexity of a larger
landscape is broken apart to
communicate how different
elements relate.
DIAGRAMS
SCALE CHANGE
When working with a project that
combines different scales, lifting
and separating the components
helps clarify what the elements
are and how they fit together.
Scale shifts benefit from a more
reductive explanation.
Design proposal
1:20
Manufacturing below,
public park above.
Infrastructure and
circulation entwine
different zones
Surrounding context
1:50
Neighborhood adjacent
to the proposal site
Base map
1:1000
Context map of NY
depicting parks and
light industrial zones
“Layered scales”
diagram shows how
different scaled
elements overlay
with one another
129
EFFECTS
PHENOMENOLOGICAL DIAGRAMS
COMPLEXITY CAN OFTEN BE EXPERIENCED, RATHER THAN SEEN. Recognizing
the effects and qualities of a space, its tension, compression or movement requires a
different set of diagrams to explain their effects. The “phenomenological diagram” helps
explain architecture’s spatial effects.
“Longitudinal flow”
“Density flowing space”
130 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
DESCRIBING THE UNSEEN
Paul Rudolph’s graphic analysis of
Mies’s Barcelona Pavilion describes the
sensory experiences of the structure.
The detailed linework of the diagram
series describes qualities of intimacy,
pressure, flow, tension, expansion and
transparency. The diagrams document
the production of spatial effects
rather than its formal attributes.
DIAGRAMS
NOTES ON:
LIGHTING EFFECTS
This diagram of Steven Holl’s
DeShaw office building
demonstrates the atmospheric
effects of light reflecting off
colored surfaces.
SOFT
FADES
When describing ephemeral effects
such as light, wind, pressure and
movement, diagrams will employ a
different set of graphic techniques that
Light bounces off
a painted surface,
throwing a glow
of color onto the
white wall
emphasize these qualities.
GRADIENTS
Moving from darkness to light,
or density to transparency, the
gradient blur is a useful tool to
communicate feelings of motion.
“Positing the perpetual interaction of
moving, evolving systems: one invisible
(the diagram) and one visible (the real).
The primary phenomena studied by the new
STROKE GRADIENTS
If demonstrating movement
from one area to another, stroke
gradients can reinforce a sense
of motion and action.
sciences are actually visible to, or intuitable
by, a living observer, but not to a non-living
one, say to a camera or a measuring device.”
—Sanford Kwinter
No motion
Graceful sweep
“Building and views”
diagram, showing how
windows correspond to
landscape conditions
FINE LINES, DASHES AND DOTS
Delicate relationships between
cause and effect can be
communicated with fine lines,
dots and dashes. Combined with
arrows, a mesh of linework can
show depth and communicate
movement and transitions.
131
ORGANIZATION
INFORMATION DIAGRAMS
ORGANIZING LOGISTICS CAN IMPACT ARCHITECTURE’S FORM. The technical details
that guide flows and operations can have immense bearing on how architecture is formed and
developed. Diagramming a project’s information has increasing agency—especially in public
buildings, institutions and landscapes.
OMA’s diagrams of the
Seattle Public Library
show how the architecture
responds to the organization
of the library collection
100
999
The first diagram
explains the beginning
900
999
700
899
500
699
100
499
...and shows how architecture
accommodates organization
800
500
To another floor
400
To an off-site
location
100
To the basement
But as the collection
expands, materials no
longer fit the building
The building’s flat,
stacked floors disrupt
the collection
“Data structures can themselves be seen to
operate as both the context of, and model for,
the practices of the architect.” —Brett Steele
132 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
ARCHITECTURE OF INFORMATION
Architecture engages identity through
building design, but increasingly architecture
engages communication through an
institution’s practices. How does the
diagram absorb, organize and transform
identity, culture and physical space?
DIAGRAMS
OPEN SPACE
Commercial
Institutional
Golf
Institutional
Vacant
ACTIVE
Industrial
Industrial
Attractions
Residential
Beach
Institutions
Residential
Open Space
PASSIVE
Parks
Open Space
Cemeteries
Swamp
CURRENT
WILD
FUTURE
A “bar chart” is pulled out
for further explanation
EMERGING FUTURES
James Corner Field Operation’s approach to
Freshkills Park addressed how the site would
transform from landfill to community park.
Pamphlet Architecture
Arrival
Wetlands
Pamphlet Architecture
Investigations in Infrastru
8
Initial Sort
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0
111
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7
Containment
4
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Secondary Sorting
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6
Auction Ring
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2
1
COORDINATING FLOWS
To design the new cattle-sorting
facility in Kentucky, the diagram
arranges the movement of cattle,
people, trucks and waste. A type of
“organizational chart,” this diagram
coordinates relationships between
components, giving agency to the
emerging architecture.
“Waste land” diagram proposes the movement
of cattle, people, trucks and manure
133
TECHNOLOGY
TRADITIONAL / RYB
In the traditional color wheel,
primary colors yellow, blue and red
mix to form all colors. In this model,
white is the absence of all color.
THE PRODUCTION OF COLOR
DIFFERENT TOOLS INFLUENCE COLOR PRODUCTION. As technologies
have changed, so have the way colors are produced and viewed. Mixing paints or
selecting swatches on the computer impacts color’s context.
RYB, too, is
a subtractive
color model
YELLOW
primary
YELLOW ORANGE
tertiary
YELLOW GREEN
tertiary
Split
complements
ORANGE
secondary
Secondary colors
GREEN
secondary
are the product of
two primary colors.
Triadic colors
RED
ORANGE
tertiary
BLUE
GREEN
tertiary
Tertiary colors
result when mixing
sequential primary
and secondary colors.
RED
Analogous
primary
BLUE
primary
Complementary
colors are opposite
one another on the
color wheel.
Split complements
use the two colors
RED
PURPLE
tertiary
adjacent to the base
BLUE PURPLE
tertiary
PURPLE
secondary
complement.
Analogous colors
are sequential on the
Triadic colors are
color wheel.
evenly spaced around
the color wheel.
134 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
ART HISTORY
Reds, blues and yellows are present
in earlier diagrams, which relied on
the RYB model to mix paints.
DIAGRAMS
SUBTRACTIVE / CMYK
In the subtractive color model,
colors are made by blocking parts
of the spectrum. Cyan, magenta
and yellow are the primary colors.
+
=
+
=
+
=
ADDITITIVE / RGB
In the additive color model, colors
are created with different colors of
light. Red, green and blue (RGB)
add together to form white light.
K stands
for “keyed,”
not black
YELLOW
subtractive primary
additive secondary
_
RED
additive primary
subtractive secondary
MAGENTA
+
=
+
=
+
=
GREEN
+
+
_
_
subtractive primary
additive primary
subtractive secondary
CYAN
subtractive primary
additive secondary
additive secondary
+
BLUE
additive primary
subtractive secondary
MODERN DIAGRAMS
The bright cyans and limes used
in contemporary diagrams come
from being drawn (with light) on
a computer monitor.
+
+
=
+
+
=
TERTIARY COLORS
In the additive model, light
is added to produce brighter
hues closer to white light.
135
CONVERSATION
ALL OF THE ABOVE
JANETTE KIM, PRINCIPAL / DIRECTOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY URBAN LANDSCAPE LAB / NEW YORK, NY
1
JANETTE KIM is an architectural
designer, researcher and educator
based in New York City. She is
principal of All of the Above, a design
practiced based in Brooklyn, and
a faculty member at the Columbia
University GSAPP, where she edits
ARPA Journal, directs the Applied
Research Practices in Architecture
initiative and co-directs the Urban
Landscape Lab. Janette’s research
work focuses on design and ecology
in relationship to public representation,
interest and debate. Janette holds
a Masters of Architecture from
Princeton University and a Bachelor
of Arts from Columbia University.
136 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
creek. It was boarded up and tucked
How do you use diagrams to organize your
behind private properties, and didn’t have
design research?
a physical presence in the city. We started
the project by asking how the creek could
JANETTE KIM: Much of my work is
research-based, and uses graphics to
draw out spaces, arguments and ideas in
relationship to space.
play a greater role in Poughkeepsie’s
everyday life. I didn’t know the city well
yet, so I posed a naive question to our
collaborators: “What are the neighborhoods
in Poughkeepsie?” To my surprise, the
GDA: What kinds of drawings do you use to
describe your research?
response was that there weren’t any.
If communities don’t coalesce around
neighborhoods, how do they organize
JK: One example comes from a master
plan we created for the Fall Kill, a creek in
Poughkeepsie.
When we started, Poughkeepsie
residents were largely unaware of the
politically? We mapped schools, child
support infrastructures, social services,
churches and retail environments. We
looked for evidence of collective interest
and sought to reveal links between people
DIAGRAMS
3
2
TOOL KITS
and spaces that, when strengthened,
we would traditionally associate with the
could motivate Poughkeepsie residents
public realm—parks, public squares, etc.—
to advocate for the creek and feel
we had to identify less visible phenomena
1–3: A User’s Guide to the Fall
comfortable using new public spaces on its
to understand the city. Here’s a simple
Kill Creek, Urban Landscape Lab,
banks. We developed these observations
example: to get to and from the city’s only
PAUSE, Landmine Studio and
through layered research documents that
public high school, kids walk or bike long
eDesign Dynamics
related information we were finding in
distances across many other pathways—
GIS databases, city documents, direct
ones shared by workers getting to the train
4–6: Pinterest Headquarters,
site observations and from our own
station, and residents who use bus lines to
All of the Above / First Office
conversations with residents.
reach suburban supermarkets. These dense
4: Organizational diagrams
pathways were quite invisible; you would
5: Models
never know to look for them. But they
6: Ground-floor plan
GDA: It sounds as if these layered drawings
were actually maps.
JK: Yes, I see these research drawings
more as maps than as diagrams. Since
there are few spaces in Poughkeepsie that
provided the perfect sites for parks, markets
and nurseries along the creek that could
7–8: Underdome,
support after-school programs, or activate
Janette Kim and Erik Carver with
spaces that looked neglected but were
the Urban Landscape Lab.
actually in frequent use.
137
CONVERSATION
4
GDA: What’s the difference between a
map and a diagram?
JK: I’ve heard diagrams defined as a set
of instructions. In this sense, the diagram
is a drawing that lays the groundwork
for future action, or defines an abstract
process in geometric terms.
At the architectural scale, I use
diagrams to test the organizational and
programmatic logic of physical spaces. In
our design for Pinterest’s headquarters, we
encountered a curious overlap between the
visual structure of the Pinterest website,
the Human Resources “diagram” of the
company’s organizational structure, and the
plan of the office workplaces. Throughout
our design process we constantly moved
between these three discussions. To start,
we made simple diagrams to prompt
a conversation with the client about
interactions among staff members. At
138 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
Pinterest, designers, engineers and product
a consistent width but a variable height,
managers work in close collaboration while
effectively allowing the combination of
maintaining their own disciplinary methods.
any kind of media. The site’s engineering
We wanted to understand how people
structure allows for cross-referencing
combine and separate to see how we could
through an infinite number of taxonomic
create opportunities for informal exchange
frameworks. For example, you can pin an
and independent focus. Accordingly, we
image of “pink football helmets,” and the
designed a kind of catalog of strange
image could belong to the category “pink”
objects—a super huge table, a house-
and the category “football.” We love that
shaped volume sliced off at two sides, and
about the website, and we thought that’s
so on—that would be built within an open
what the architecture should do. If you
floor plan and require people to invent new
look at a floor plan cut three feet above
ways of organizing a meeting, occupying a
ground, you’ll see an array of desks that
war room, coming together for a collective
extends across the whole space. If you
lunch or throwing a party at the bar. The
cut the plan at five feet you’ll see team
floor plans, in turn, used grid lines pointing
spaces emerge within visual and acoustic
in different directions to indicate where
enclosures. At 12 feet you’ll see the spaces
crossovers among disciplinary spaces
all connected again, this time through
could occur, and to locate acoustically
lighting infrastructure, data cables and
sequestered spaces within the open office.
fire suppression. At all levels, you’d see a
What’s so brilliant about Pinterest’s
very consistent grid across the space that
website is that they created a grid with
enables the formation of Pinterest teams in
DIAGRAMS
5
unexpected ways. So this was a case where
the diagram was important to our work—
the diagram was spatial but it also guided
the company’s organizational structure and
working methods.
The Pinterest and Poughkeepsie
drawings are quite different. In the
former, we use the literal pattern of the
organizational diagram to provoke unusual
social organizations. In Poughkeepsie,
we were drawing invisible actions.
The geometry shown in our research
drawings wasn’t directly significant to
the design, but did help us play with
program and locate significant sites.
6
JK: Once we established an idea for the
Poughkeepsie master plan, we found that
we needed a different visual language
to provoke future action. Poughkeepsie’s
municipal government has demonstrated
zero interest in supporting public space. So,
despite our personal politics, we knew that
a public space initiative would only happen
if it were privately funded. It became
clear to us that we needed to work with
residents, small businesses, churches and
schools along the creek, and we worked
with our client, Clearwater, a non-profit
environmental advocacy group, to lead the
public to action.
and history. We also made a book that
GDA: A kind of “public action” diagram?
leverage diagrams?
JK: We created signs at every major
bridge across the creek that connected
information about neighboring
organizations to the waterway’s ecology
JK: I think Underdome builds upon a
tradition of drawing that is interested
less in a descriptive or operative diagram
and more in the interpretation of a found
we called The User’s Guide to the Fall Kill
Creek, which offered ideas for property
owners and tenants to activate spaces
along the creek. If you’re a church, for
example, you could take advantage of
these suggestions to use your parking lot
for outdoor services or performances. It
was fun for us to draw these options and to
imagine different uses along the creek. The
manual became a way for us to connect to
different audiences, and Clearwater was
able to get a grant from the EPA to host
workshops with local residents.
GDA: Does the Underdome project
GDA: The diagram is an active design
participant, it’s a communication device
between yourself and the design—it’s a
tool to help you as you’re working. Versus
a map is something you’re uncovering as
you draw your research.
139
OWN
INDIVIDUAL
OWNEROCCUPATIO
TRADITIONAL
HOUSEHOLDS
CONVERSATION
VOLUNTEER
PERSONAL
RESPONSIBILITY
EMPOWER
COMMUNITY
ADVOCACY
SMASH THE STATE
DOMESTICATE
ANARCHIST
ACTIVISM
NUCLEAR FAMILIES
RELAX
HEDONISM
SUE
CITIZEN LITIGATION
POWER
SOCIALIZED
HELP OUT
HOW TO
RE-POWER?
HUMANITARIAN
NGOS
TAKE CHARGE
GOVERNMENT
REGULATION
7
COMPETE
FREE-MARKET
COMPETITION
ENFORCE
GOVERNMENT-RUN
PROJECTS
FREE MARKET
PRIVATIZE
FOR PROFIT
INFRASTRUCTURE
INCENTIVIZE
MARKET-BASED
INITIATED
MOTIVATION
TOP-DOWN
RISK-AVERSE
space. In Learning from Las Vegas or Made
in Tokyo, for example, there is an attempt
CENTRALIZED
determination, lifestyle ideals and images
of the city that lurk behind rhetoric.
CONSERV
the Army Corps of Engineers or FEMA,
for example. We’re trying to make the
to use the map (in Robert Venturi, Denise
To accomplish this, we draw the
drawings a bit double-sided, so they could
Scott Brown and Steven Izenour’s case)
contradictions and oddities within any
advocate for a position and critique it at
or the axonometric drawing (in Atelier
given energy scheme. For example, we are
the same time.
Bow Wow’s case) to develop a new theory
currently making a drawing of the Make It
about architectural design.
Similarly, Underdome—a website and
forthcoming publication that compares
contending attitudes towards energy
reform—draws out existing buildings,
sites and technologies in a very dry way.
ButCOMPACT
we depart from the Learning From
paradigm by framing conflicts among a
set of examples. We framed
the project
DENSIFY
DENSE
as a debate so that readers
can URBAN
compare
DEVELOPMENT
one ideological framework around energy
against another. In the process we hope to
open up new questions that challenge our
assumptions about energy politics, and we
hope to make explicit narratives of self-
LOCALIZE
REGIONAL
AUTONOMY
140 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR
ARCHITECTS
Right Foundation’s efforts to build housing
in the Lower
MASTER
PLANNinth Ward in New Orleans
CENTRALIZED
as an example of the humanitarian model
PLANNING
of investment and recovery. We started
by drawing the project as it is normally
TERRITORY
seen—as a close-up of the Morphosis
HOW
TOthat floats. But we realized it
building
would be much more interesting to show
RESHAPE?
GDA: Perhaps the drawings of Underdome
are better described as icons? The minute
DECOUPLE
INDIVIDUAL
you zoom out and show more context they
hold a different position. They become
RESPONSE
double-sided, they provoke a debate. Are
the icons diagrams for conversation?
DISTRIBUTED
JK: Much of my work deals with
a different context, and
zoomed
out
to
NETWORK
CROSSarchitecture
BORDERS as a form of public
DISTRIBUTED
engagement. Whether we are using maps
show the houses in relationship
to the EXTRA-NATIONAL
INFRASTRUCTURES
NETWORKS
in the Fall Kill master plan, organizational
levee, the flood gates and the hotels that
diagrams in the Pinterest headquarters or
people stayed in while they waited for
axonometrics in Underdome, drawings play
new homes. This way we could show how
a critical role in identifying and negotiating
humanitarian efforts are in fact reliant upon
contending interests.
larger systems—infrastructures funded by
SELF ORGANIZE
BOTTOM-UP
PLANNING
BOTTOM-UP
SPREAD OUT
WORK WITH
SPRAWL
REDUCE RESOU
USE
CHOOSE EAR
PRIORITIZE T
BIOSPHERE
DIAGRAMS
8
141
Page Intentionally Left Blank
architectural communication
information
graphics
LEGIBILITY
PIE CHARTS
PIE CHARTS ARE COMMON COMMUNICATION TOOLS. However, despite their ubiquity,
they often misrepresent information. Paying attention to how information, text and color is
presented in a piechart can have significant impact on their legibility.
Who is your favorite architecture theorist?
Start at the top
Lavin
Sassen
Black outlines separate
the chart from the page
and make it look heavy
2nd largest
segment
Whiting
largest segment
Easterling
3rd
4th
OUT OF ORDER
It’s intuitive to read a chart
clockwise, top to bottom. However,
the smallest segments are given
the most prominence.
REORGANIZE PIECES
By putting the largest pie pieces at
the top, the smallest segments are
given the least prominence.
Select colors in the
same tonal family
Easterling
Easterling
Whiting
Whiting
Sassen
Sassen
Bold text on the
highlighted piece
can add prominence
Lavin
Lavin
EFFECTIVE COLORS
Too many colors can be distracting.
Allow one darker color to give
prominence to the chart content
you want to highlight.
144 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
BLACK TEXT
Dark-colored text is always easier
to read than white text on a darker
background. Place labels in the
center of each segment.
INFOGRAPHICS
EXPANDED INFORMATION
NOTES ON:
When expanding upon a pie chart, it is helpful to change
INFOGRAPHIC
RESOURCES
representation forms. A segmented bar chart, rather than another pie
chart, is more efficient at explaining proportions of a whole.
Who is your favorite architecture theorist?
Graduate students often cite writings by Sarah Whiting.
Dona M. Wong
Wall Street Journal Guide to
Easterling
Information Graphics
Whiting
W.W. Norton & Co (2010)
Sassen
Filled with great information and
If pulling out a slice from
the chart, there’s no
need to also reinforce it
with a change in color
Lavin
many helpful examples. The pie
charts on these pages, as well
as the information on number
charts, have been synthesized
from this publication.
Edward Tufte
Visual Explanations: Images
50%
“Notes around the Doppler Effect”
15%
25%
“Bas-Relief Urbanism”
10%
To emphasize one
segment, use a
darker color in the
same tonal family
and Quantities, Evidence and
Narrative Graphics Press (1997)
All of Tufte’s books are useful
resources filled with historic
Other
examples of how information has
been visualized and displayed.
“Superblockism:
Chicago’s Elastic Grid”
Histories of Cities: Design and Context,
eds. Rodolphe el-Khoury and Edward
Robbins (London: Spon/Routledge,
2004): 57–76
Sandra Rendgen and
Julius Weideman (eds.)
Information Graphics
What discipline were the students studying?
Taschen (2012)
A tome of contemporary
50%
30%
20%
information graphics, filled with
architecture
urban design
landscape
examples from the last decade.
Unlike using multiple pie
charts, expanding upon
a segmented bar with
another is clarifying
145
ORGANIZATION
PIE CHART VARIATIONS
PIE CHARTS DON’T HAVE TO BE ROUND. Their aim is to show percentages of a whole,
not triangular wedges in circles. There are many ways proportions can be demonstrated visually.
Who is your favorite architect?
Denise Scott Brown is often recognized.
SQUARES INSTEAD OF CIRCLES
Brown
Hadid
Pie charts demonstrate proportions. In both
Sejima
of these square examples’ responses are
Gang
visualized through different-colored squares.
Different-scaled answers are easier to see
Sejima
Gang
when there is a uniform geometry, or when
units of measure are clearly delineated.
Hadid
Brown
Each block equals one response,
so it’s easy to visualize individual
Sejima
Brown
answers within each percentage
Hadid
Similar to a
bar graph
Gang
VARIATIONS ON A CIRCLE
40% Brown
30% Gang
Leaving the center open gives
a lighter, more modern feel to a
traditional pie-chart. It also allows
percentages to be stacked against
one another to work as a bar
graph. An open center also leaves
30%
Gang
20% Sejima
Who is your
favorite architect?
10% Hadid
40%
Brown
Denise Scott Brown
is often recognized
room for text.
20%
Sejima
10%
Hadid
Open space in the
center provides an
easy space for text
Which is your favorite building?
146 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
40%
35%
15%
10%
Toledo Glass Pavilion
New Museum
Rolex
Houses
INFOGRAPHICS
NOTES ON:
PEAKS AND VALLEYS
TYPES
OF DATA
Brown
Pie charts demonstrate
proportions. In both of these
square examples responses are
visualized through different
colored squares. Different scaled
answers are easier to see when
There are a few basic types of data
there is a uniform geometry, or
to be aware of when representing
when units of measure are clearly
information. Knowing what kind
delineated.
Gang
Sejima
of information you have will make
certain design decisions.
Hadid
Moussavi
CATEGORY DATA
Information that isn’t measured
with a number—such as male or
female—is known as qualitative
data. This information could be
demonstrated within a graph by
using different types of colors or
icons, for example.
Sejima
Architects’ nationality
is an example of
qualitative data
NUMERICAL INFORMATION
Data that is a number is known
as quantitive data. There are two
types of this:
Hadid
Asian architects
American architects
Kennedy
• quantitive discrete: Only
Leers
certain numerical values are
Gang
allowed, such as a round
number. Number of buildings
you’ve visited? 103
Brown
• quantitive continuous: Any
Sequencing by
birthdate is an example
of quantatitve
discrete data
number will work. How tall is
Gang
that building? 103.58 feet tall
Knowing the difference between
this information allows one to
Sejima
change data types to make better
representations. For example,
Hadid
1931
1950
numbers in categories (0–10, 11–20,
1956
1964
21–30… etc) can look very different
from continuous data (1, 2, 3…)
147
ORGANIZATION
STRUCTURE
BAR CHARTS
PRESENTING DATA IS A DESIGN CHOICE. When given different datasets, think carefully
about the best form to present information. Single bar charts might be the best way to illustrate
a presentation. Layering information reveals a different story. Only show information that is
relevant to the case you’re trying to present.
New York Tallest Buildings
New York’s Costliest Skyscrapers
Height of New York City’s skyscapers (in feet)
Construction costs (in dollars) adjusted for inflation
One World Trade
One World Trade
1776 feet
Empire State
1250
Bank of America
1046
New York Times
1004
Four World Trade
977
Citigroup
Beekman Tower
875 million
850
Trump World
876
Trump World
861
1
New York Times
Four World Trade
915
Beekman Tower
1.1
Bank of America
1046
One57
1.4
Citigroup
1200
Chrysler
3.8 billion
One57
373
300
Empire State
281
Chrysler
274
Cost of New York’s Tallest Skyscrapers
Construction costs (in dollars) compared to building height
3.8 billion
One World Trade
1776 feet
Empire State
1250
Bank of America
1200
Chrysler
1046
New York Times
1046
One57
1004
Four World Trade
977
Citigroup
915
Beekman Tower
876
Trump World
861
300 million
Financial information is
layered on top of height
148 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
INFOGRAPHICS
NEW YORK’S TALLEST
AND COSTLIEST BUILDINGS
ONE WORLD TRADE
Height and Construction Costs
3.8 billion / 1776'
THREE-DIMENSIONAL DATA
The same information presented
in two bar charts is also presented
in this three-dimensional
representation. Working in three
dimensions allows you to present
more information as each axis can
CHRYSLER
hold different datasets. However,
274 million / 1046'
this can make information harder
to read. Think about when to use
EMPIRE STATE
2D or 3D techniques.
281 million / 1250'
BANK OF AMERICA
1 billion / 1200'
NEW YORK TIMES
850 million / 1046'
ONE57
1.4 billion / 1004'
FOUR WORLD TRADE
373 million / 977'
CITIGROUP
1.1 billion / 915'
BEEKMAN TOWER
875 million / 876'
TRUMP WORLD
300 million / 861'
Adding color adds
information. Building
eras are represented
through different colors.
Buildings built from 2010–present
Height
2000–2009
Before 1999
Cost
149
PRESENTATION
PIE CHARTS VERSUS BAR CHARTS
NOT ALL CHARTS PRESENT INFORMATION IN THE SAME WAY. Knowing which chart
to use to present information is as important as knowing how to present information clearly.
The way information is shaped and the form it takes is a significant part of its communication.
Is section four larger
than section five?
A
B
1
5
C
1
5
1
5
2
2
4
4
4
2
3
3
3
25
25
25
20
20
20
15
15
15
10
10
10
5
5
5
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
MAKING COMPARISONS
When discerning small differences within the larger whole,
bar charts are far more effective than pie charts. When
information is presented in bar charts, one can easily make
comparisons between the data. If presented in a pie chart,
each wedge can appear to be the same size.
150 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
0
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
3
4
Easy to see that
section four is larger
than section five
5
INFOGRAPHICS
SIDE BY SIDE
When trying to understand difference, making direct,
side-by-side comparisons helps indicate change. Trying
to understand the differences between bar lengths when
they are separated is much harder than when they are
placed directly next to each other.
Last Year
This Year
Whiting
Next Year
Last Year
This Year
Next Year
150
Colomina
Easterling
75
Sassen
Lavin
Other
0
Whiting
NO COMPARISON
It is difficult to see the difference
between the bars for last year,
this year and next year.
Colomina Easterling
Sassen
Lavin
Other
EASY TO COMPARE
When condensed next to each other,
it is easy to see the differences
between each bar graph.
Other
Lavin
Whiting
Whiting
Sassen
Easterling
Sassen
Colomina
Colomina
Lavin
Easterling
SMALLER SEGMENTS
Its easy to see the largest piece of the
pie chart, but hard to understand the
differences between smaller segments.
Other
EASY TO COMPARE
Our eyes are able to understand the
difference between pieces when there
is a clear datum.
151
ORGANIZATION
PRESENTING NUMBERS
DESPITE BEING STRAIGHTFORWARD, NUMBERS ARE HARD TO PRESENT. Numbers,
like words, can quickly become a wash of indecipherable data. Shaping numbers with line
Heavier lead line
makes an effective
division between
headers and data
breaks, shading, type weights and alignment can help shape the presentation of numerical
Name
Data
Data
Data
Data
Project 1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 2
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 3
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 4
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 5
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 6
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 7
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 8
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
DISTRACTING LINES
Name
Data
Data
Data
Data
Project 1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 2
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 3
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 4
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 5
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 6
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 7
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Project 8
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
MOIRE EFFECT
Too many lines cause heavy
In small charts, alternating zones of dark
divisions between cells, making
and light lines appear busy. Readers can
information hard to read.
easily scan information without these
colored divisions.
Column label is
centered over
the number
Name
Data
Data
Data
Data
Name
Data
Project 1
0.0
15.0
0.0
0.0
Project 1
0.0
Data
15.0
Data
Project 2
0.0
14.0
0.0
0.0
Project 2
0.0
14.0
0.0
Project 3
0.0
13.0
0.0
0.0
Project 3
0.0
13.0
0.0
0.0
Project 4
0.0
12.0
0.0
0.0
Project 4
0.0
12.0
0.0
Project 5
0.0
11.0
0.0
0.0
Project 5
0.0
11.0
0.0
Project 6
0.0
10.0
0.0
0.0
Project 6
0.0
10.0
0.0
Project 7
0.0
9.0
0.0
0.0
Project 7
0.0
9.0
0.0
Project 8
0.0
8.0
0.0
0.0
Project 8
0.0
8.0
0.0
Project 9
0.0
7.0
0.0
0.0
Project 9
0.0
7.0
0.0
Project 10
0.0
6.0
0.0
0.0
Project 10
0.0
6.0
0.0
Project 11
0.0
5.0
0.0
0.0
Project 11
0.0
5.0
0.0
Project 12
0.0
4.0
0.0
0.0
Project 12
0.0
4.0
0.0
SMALL GUIDES
CHART IN A TABLE
Thin lines every three to five lines can help
Charts are more memorable than
readers scan across the table. Shading can be
numbers, so when possible use a chart
used to highlight important data.
to represent the important information.
152 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
INFOGRAPHICS
EFFECTIVE COMPARISONS
When presenting multiple data sets in one chart,
it’s easier to compare information vertically than to
make comparisons horizontally.
Cluttered text is
especially hard to
read white on black
CHART TITLE
Never set text
at an angle
Chart Title
Overview of the information
ec
t3
Cost / sq. ft
Time
10,000
20,000
30,000
Project 1
10,000
60
100
Cost / sq. foot
60
80
100
Project 2
20,000
80
200
Time
100
200
300
Project 3
30,000
100
300
Budget
Pr
oj
Budget
Pr
oj
ec
t2
presented in the chart
Pr
oj
ec
t1
OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION
PRESENTED IN THE CHART
A simple headline
explains the graph
without overwhelming
CLUTTERED INFORMATION
EASIER TO READ
The chart is organized around
information pertaining to each project,
rather than information about budgets,
costs and time.
Text is presented in distracting ways—
bold, italics, reversed, even at an angle.
The chart’s purpose (to compare data
between companies) is hard to understand.
Whole
numbers are
left-justified
Decimals
aligned above
the other
Decimal
points are
left-justified
Align whole
numbers to
the right
Name
Name
Data
Name
Data
Project 1
5000
Project 1
5000
Project 2
700
Project 2
700
Project 3
50
Project 3
50
Project 4
3
Project 4
3
ALIGNING WHOLE NUMBERS
It’s OK to center
small numbers
Data
Name
Data
12.3
Project 1
12.31
Project 1
Project 2
1.22
Project 2
1.2
Project 3
89.8
Project 3
89.8
Project 4
7.0
Project 4
7.0
ALIGNING DECIMALS
If designing whole numbers (figures without
Decimal numbers should never be aligned
decimal points), justify them to the right as it is
flush left or right, but rather should have their
easier to read the different between larger and
decimal points line up.
smaller numbers.
153
ORGANIZATION
FLOW CHARTS
GRAPHICS GIVE SHAPE TO ENTIRE SETS OF INFORMATION. However, within each
dataset, hierarchies of information are embedded. How are these more complex relationships
revealed? How does a drawing demonstrate information’s entirety as well as its details?
y1
es
Repr
r
sto
Hi
Co
re
3
Cor
e2
Core 1
Rep 1
2
Rep
ry
eo
Th
As one moves outward
from the center, more
details are provided
about each component
y2
ion
Con
stru
ctio
n
entat
sto
r
Hi
st
or
4
re
Co
Co
re
Hi
y
Stru
ctu
re
s1
Structures
Struc
t
ures
2
Lec
t
ns 1
Optio
dio
ure
Stu
s
Architecture
Curriculum
ProPrac 1
Options
al
ssion
Profe ice
Pract
Optio
Seminars
ns 2
ory
mi
ina
m
Se
title, then a set of information that breaks the previous
segment into smaller pieces. Each ring of the chart
shows a subset of the previous information.
154 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
r2
between data segments. In the center of this chart is a
ina
Some charts indicate different types of relationships
m
EXPANDING OUTWARDS
Se
r4
y
log
Th
e
Se
no
S
h
Tec
r3
ina
em
na
r1
INFOGRAPHICS
Areas of Graduate Study
Number of Students Earning Design Degrees
BREAKING GROUPS APART
Similar to the graph on the opposite page,
this flow chart shows how a set of information
Architecture
can be broken into different parts. How can
information be designed to show its subsets,
Landscape
as well as its entirety?
Urban
Other
Information above
the break is related
to the information
below through color,
scale and alignment
Four main
groupings
.... contain complex
subsets of information
1 year
Master of
Design
2 years
thesis
thesis
Master of
Architecture 2
Master of
Landscape
Architecture AP
Master of
Landscape
Architecture 2
Master of
Urban
Planning
Master of
Urban
Design
3 years
thesis
Master of
Architecture AP
Master of
Landscape
Architecture 1
Doctor of
Design
4 years
Master of
Architecture 1
PhD
155
CONVERSATION
FILSON AND ROHRBACHER
ANNE FILSON, PRINCIPAL / LEXINGTON, KY
ANNE FILSON is a principal of Filson
and Rohrbacher, an architecture,
design and research firm. She is an
architect, researcher and educator,
who has pursued the critical practice
of architecture through a wide range
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
You’ve been part of a few on-going
research projects focused on issues
relevant to micropolitan communities.
What are the challenges in designing
these types of environments?
of projects for many types of clients.
She was a Project Architect at OMA /
Rem Koolhaas, pursued Strategic /
Design Consulting for IDEO’s Smart
Space Practice, and worked at both
large corporate and small design-centric
firms. She currently teaches design
and professional practice at the
University of Kentucky, and holds
a MArch degree from Columbia
University and a BA in Art History
from Smith College.
156 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
In the case of the Henderson Studio,
which was part of the Kentucky River
Studios Program at the University of
Kentucky, Matthijs Bouw of One
Architecture and I approached the
project from a planning standpoint.
We looked at Henderson’s physical
ANNE FILSON: Micropolitan is a relatively
new designation that describes towns
between 25,000 and 55,000 people.
They’re too big to be considered small
towns, and they have more economic
diversity than small towns do. Most
micropolitan communities on the East
and West coast are absorbed into other
larger metro regions, but the Midwest
has an abundance of micropolitan
centers. Many of these centers have lost
population with their industrial base.
infrastructure, buildings, landscape,
river, etc and mapped all of these
physical elements. But we also drew
on other kinds of intangible information.
We looked at flows of materials
and commodities moving in and out of
Henderson: coal, aluminum, energy, other
capital that was moving through the town.
In analyzing the geographical disposition
of these economic exchanges, we sought
to understand and to question what could
drive a new era of prosperity. We
INFOGRAPHICS
TESTING GROUND
complemented this with anthropological
Just drawing the strip mall, the parking lot
research, and interviewed a diverse cross–
and the farm road won’t tell you enough
section of the community to understand
about the community you’re investigating.
The series of models
better Henderson’s culture.
You have to start looking at larger distances
combined scaled architectural
and disparate concentrations in order to
representations with information
understand the micropolitan environment.
from geologists. Developed with
There is density in these locations, physical
innovative printing methods,
settlement seems spread further apart but
these models are interactive tools
non–physical flows of social exchange,
for community stakeholders.
materials and energy become elements are
Participants can draw and
more prominent. When you recognize this
diagram directly on the models,
form of dispersal, you also realize the
changing pieces to test different
different ways these places are connected.
ideas. The models serve as a way
The drawing project then is to describe the
to host conversations, rather
intensity of flows between concentrations,
than document building form.
GDA: Do you need different ways of
representing these un-dense cities?
AF: Dense urban centers, such as
Manhattan, Rome or Chicago, are easily
understood by figure–ground. But when
drawing—and designing for—a city that is
not dense, that has much less “figure” to
“ground,” you have to develop other
mapping techniques. You have to find other
things to draw, find other ways of
measuring and drawing scale so these
un-dense cities still read as “settled.”
not the object of the city’s figure–ground.
Instead you are drawing and designing the
Photos by Magnus Lindqvist,
forces around the centers.
Glint Studio
157
CONVERSATION
GDA: Was this challenging to describe to
the students?
AF: Absolutely. Because the city was so
unusual, and figure–ground plans weren’t
going to tell the interesting story, the
students had to invent graphic conventions
for their maps. They had to redraw their
maps several times to try to find a way
of describing the city. For example, we
had a student draw an energy diagram
that described the incredible intensity of
power generated by the city. These maps
recognized the intensity of Henderson—
it just wasn’t a human intensity, but rather
one made from megawatts. After drawing
that energy map, you start to see that this
small city has a significant role in the state.
GDA: How were you able to help Paducah
see itself differently?
158 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
AF: The Department of Energy, local
his studio by visualizing the physical
government and other experts have all
information. No one had ever physically
known about the sub–surface ground
modeled or visualized the collected data
concentrations beneath the PGDP
before, so his funded research studio began
(Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant) in
by plotting the geologists’ data points into
Paducah, KY. These concentrations were
a three-dimensional meshwork and sited
byproducts from decades of uranium
it within the physical context of PGDP. This
enrichment during the Cold War. There
way one could see the collected information
has been no consensus on the problem
in relationship to existing topography,
or the remedy. Paducah’s stakeholders
buildings, roads, the water table, etc.
have different understandings of the
With funding from the Department
situation: geologists saw the condition as
of Energy, Gary and I led a post–
a spreadsheet of numbers; the Department
graduate research team to follow up the
of Energy viewed it as a public relations
studio by building a digitally fabricated
problem; the public believed it was
physical model of the PGDP site and the
something frightening; local government
underground enrichment byproducts. We
wondered if it would detract from future
presented the model to the stakeholders.
growth. Every group had a different point
It was the first time any one of them
of view.
had seen the data in a way they could
Similar to how we began in Henderson,
Gary Rohrbacher started the project in
understand. Visualizing this information
brought the stakeholders onto the same
INFOGRAPHICS
page because they started to understand
tool that the Department of Energy funded
different identity markers, tags, scales and
the same things. We understood that after
the development and production of further
other plexiglass cut pieces to mark the
visualizing this data the city, scientists,
models. The first model documented the
conversation. This model helped facilitate
engineers and developers could start
conditions—it had interchangeable parts,
conversations, to give the stakeholders a
building a consensus about the scope of the
but it didn’t move at the speed of the
physical tool to envision alternative futures.
problem, and then about how to address
conversation. For the second model we
In contrast to the first model that was
it. We were pleased that the model and
decided to make a more interactive tool,
about understanding what’s there, this
the drawings our research team developed
something that could change at the speed
one gave community stakeholders agency
facilitated these conversations.
of the conversation.
in imagining and describing what could
Not everyone can read a spreadsheet,
but everyone can read a physical model.
GDA: As the conversation evolved, how did
the design of the models change?
AF: We led our research team to make
several iterations of models. That first one
modeled the site’s physical components
and documented what existed: the ground
concentrations, buildings, river, water table,
roads. This proved to be such a powerful
This next model facilitated the
stakeholders’ conversation about the
happen to the site.
Our research team built a third
ground concentration, monitoring and
generation model that showed the PGDP
remediation, and scenarios for Paducah’s
site at a much larger scale. This scale
development. We built the model out
made it possible to add more detailed
of plexiglass that could be written on
information and a greater degree of
and tagged—the buildings and roads
mutability. We embedded small plexi rods
were glued down, but everything else
that marked where the geologists made
could move or be drawn on, crossed
their boring holes to take measurements,
out, changed. We designed a tool kit
from the original spreadsheet. We designed
to accompany the interactive model
the model to be easily transported from
that included indelible china markers,
site to site, updatable with new data and
159
CONVERSATION
intuitively usable by community groups,
present, they weren’t visible. This physical
AF: What’s fascinating is that this whole
politicians, scientists and contractors.
condition would never show up if the
process took architects. The Department
studio only visualized figure–ground.
of Energy has invested billions to monitor
We discovered an innovative printer by
LexMark (a global printing company, based
in Lexington, KY) to back-print multiple
plexiglass layers with physical information,
data, details and a grid to give a better
sense of scale and measure. We designed
the model to easily add or remove the
plexiglass layers of information. So, as
new data becomes available, the client
can easily plot new layers and update
the model with new information.
GDA: This gets back to the issue of
apparent physicality. Much of the site’s
“figure” was determined by the chemical
concentration under the ground surface.
While these concentrations were very
160 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
and document the ground conditions, and
AF: Exactly. And that subterranean groundfigure was changing. As remediation
changed the extent of the sub-surface
contaminants, the scientists, engineers,
contractors and government planners could
use the model to communicate its retreat.
They could note that the line of the plume
would move, and as it changed it would
open up new areas of the site for design
and development.
never once were they able to adequately
communicate the concentrations to PGDP’s
many stakeholders. We felt it was essential
to use models to describe data and engage
user participation—which is a different role
for the architect. Some of this comes from
my experience at OMA, where models are
used internally to imagine alternatives, to
test ideas quickly. We rejected the idea that
the model was a presentation document to
demonstrate the final design, and wanted
GDA: The models you designed were
visualizing different potentials rather than
demonstrating specific solutions. Does this
work reflect a different role for architects?
the models to hold the conversation, to
build consensus about what the design
was. We used models to communicate to
Rem, to each other, they were powerful
INFOGRAPHICS
internal tools; but they also became tools
Models can be a tool to communicate
contractor about how the roof plane came
to communicate to the client and other
what is emerging.
together, or to explain the logic of
stakeholders. Gary and I approached
OMA made models that are very
material application to the local architect,
PGDP the same way by making models
graphic—representative of different ideas,
or to show the client the logic of where
about process, about understanding
programs, materials, porosities—which
the offices were located in relationship
conditions, about imagining new futures.
are different from models that serve as
to circulation. The model visualizes
We took the PGDP models a step further
documents of the finished design. It goes
relationships and design logics.
than OMA, in that the model remains in
back to the figure–ground discussion
People who are engaged in big
flux, long after
again. Those tools are useful to visualize
projects need ways to understand the
it leaves the hands of the architect.
form and the surrounding space. But these
complexities and the outcomes of these
graphic models are about diagramming
choices. At both OMA and for PGDP, we
all of the other information that influences
used architecture drawings and processes—
the proposed design.
diagrams, drawings, models—as the
GDA: You asked the models to have an
active role in the design process. How
is this different from ways models are
typically used?
AF: Models at the beginning can be a
way to have a conversation—a step in the
process versus a documentation of all of
our decisions to hand down to the client.
I think the model serves as a way to
interface for complex issues that are
visualize and describe all of the fluid,
moving, changing and are not static.
interactive decisions that go into a design
For PGDP, Gary and I took further steps
project. For example at IIT, we had a
to design tools to enable stakeholders.
12-foot long model of the whole building
Through the models they were not only
and it was a very powerful document. We
able to understand the issues, they were
would use the model to talk to the
able to find and have agency over them.
161
Page Intentionally Left Blank
architectural communication
maps
OVERVIEW
COORDINATING INFORMATION
MAPPING IS ABOUT GRAPHICALLY REPRESENTING INFORMATION. Choices about
colors, line weights, textures, photographs and orientation are issues of how to catalyze
information and give it agency, not just how to make itBowery
lookBay/LaGuardia
good. How we are able to absorb
Newtown Creek/Linden Hill
Newtown Creek Sewageshed
Bowery Bay Sewageshed
information affects our choices, perceptions and connection to the world.
CSO 002- 640mgy - 2.4%
CSO 005- 1.43bgy - 5.4%
bowery bay treatment plant
CSO 083- 586mgy - 2.2%
BOWERY BAY
WATER TREATMENT PLANT
BOWERY BAY 002
EXISTING MAPS
These are helpful
mta
working tools to astoria- N,Q
hold and organize
information but
shouldn’t be used
as final graphics.
bowery bay 002
mta
astoria- N,Q
bowery bay 005
BOWERY BAY 005
ADJUST TO GREY
The background map
is simplified to grey
linework while the
proposed design is
mta
jefferson st.- L added in color.
newtown
mta
owery Bay/LaGuardia
owery Bay Sewageshed
SO 002- 640mgy - 2.4%
SO 005- 1.43bgy - 5.4%
Bowery Bay
Wastewater
Treatment
ne
N
N
CSO
Wetland
Zones
New
Runway
C
Boat
Slips
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Subway
Extension
Bus
Loop
A light, transparent blue
line washes the design
perimeter, integrating the
strong colors of the proposal
into the map line weight
164 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
Airport
Runoff
Mitigation
Zone
La
Te r mG u a r d i
inal a
s
Public
Parkland
COLOR HIERARCHY
The map base is toned down even further
while the main design subject is highlighted
with stronger, more saturated colors.
Typography and line weights also contribute
to how the image is read and understood.
MAPS
Bowery Bay
Wastewater Treatment
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Boat
Slips
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Boat
Slips
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Adjacent
Parkland
CSO
Wetland
Boat
Zones
Slips
D
Boat
Slips
N
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
CSO
Wetland
Zone
Public
Parkland
Subway
Extension
S
Marina
I
New
Public
Parkland
Bus
Loop
T
CSO
Wetland
Zones
L
CSO
Wetland
Zone
Brooklyn
Navy Yard
La Guardia
Terminals
Airport
Runoff
Mitigation
Zone
L
A
CSO
Wetland
Zone
Public
Parkland
BLUE NETWORK
TERMINAL
Subway
Extension
V
E
Connection
to High Line
New
Runway
John Jay
Park
E
WILLIAMSBURG
ESPLANADE
90% Public Infrastructure
10% Stormwater Mitigation
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
40% Public Infrastructure
60% Stormwater Mitigation
R O
O
S
34th STREET
GOWANUS
COLLEGE
HARLEM
10% Public Infrastructure
90% Stormwater Mitigation
80% Public Infrastructure
20% Stormwater Mitigation
20% Public Infrastructure
80% Stormwater Mitigation
HOUSTON
DUMBO
50% Public Infrastructure
50% Stormwater Mitigation
30% Public Infrastructure
70% Stormwater Mitigation
LA GUARDIA
CANARSIE
50% Public Infrastructure
50% Stormwater Mitigation
20% Public Infrastructure
80% Stormwater Mitigation
LINDEN HILL
10% Public Infrastructure
90% Stormwater Mitigation
8
9
10
11
4
3
TO
In order to foreground the
addition of the harborport, the
map is angled so the newest
feature is placed
squarely
OWLS HEAD
30% Public Infrastructure
in the map foreground
70% Stormwater Mitigation
Base Map Colors
Active Information Colors
Boat
Slips
McGuire
Fields
LAYERING COLOR
The map base is rendered with lines and tones
of cream, grey and black. Brighter shades of
cyan, lime and red are used to highlight the
map’s active network.
CANAR
SIE
165
SEQUENCE
LAYERING INFORMATION
MAPS OVERLAY INFORMATION TO MAKE COMPARISONS BETWEEN ELEMENTS.
How you choose to organize the layers of information has an impact on how maps are read
and understood. Graphics inform how information is prioritized.
1 BASE INFORMATION
Some images just look better in black
and white. The orange wood tones
of the thin ply against the cool grey
concrete are neutralized when the
image is changed to black and white.
2 LINES GIVE SCALE
County and metro areas are added
as white linework, giving the map
scale and context.
3 ADDING COLOR
Metro areas are filled in with a solid
color. The satellite photo becomes
more like a map when layers of
drawing elements, such as lines,
color and pattern are added.
166 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
MAPS
FINAL LAYER OF INFORMATION
Hospital locations and labels are added to the map.
Further line weight demonstrates the network that
exists between these sites.
A thick drop shadow is added
as a final graphic device to give
dimension and counterbalance
the weight of the added text
4 RIVERS AND ROADS
Highways and rivers are added
bringing additional scale and
atmosphere. These elements
provide color and detail which
enhance the map’s intricacy.
5 RAILROAD
The proposed railroad is added
as a final layer. The line weight is
darker and heavier than other lines,
so its prominence is adjusted by
making it dashed (an appropriate
line treatment for a railroad).
167
DETAIL
LEVELS OF SPECIFICITY
MAPS CAN ONLY COMMUNICATE THEIR DATASET. Without good data, one cannot
produce a good map. As datasets become more complex, graphic techniques must be
enhanced to communicate the range and breadth of information.
IDENTIFY THE
CORN BELT
QUANTIFY THE
CORN BELT
DETAILED DATASETS
Mapping information about corn
production at the county, rather
than only at the state, scale brings
specificity to a corn production map.
At this level of detail, relationships to
climate and environment can be made.
SPECIFY THE
CORN BELT
168 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
MAPS
BREADTH AND DETAIL
The Corn Belt is communicated in several ways. Its general location is
given by the states outlined in darker grey. Details about each county’s
corn production is depicted through a range of colors. Pale yellow
indicates smaller quanitites than deeper orange.
CORN PRODUCTION
thousands of acres
harvested for grain
230—400
120—229
70—119
20—69
169
COLOR
ENHANCING RELATIONSHIPS
FAMILY OWNED FARMS
LIVESTOCK PROFITS
% farms operated by
a family or individual
% farm profits from
livestock and poultry
100—95
100—81
94—90
80—71
89—85
70—60
170 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
MAPS
TRANSPARENCY
makes colors, and
information, washed
out and difficult to read
NOTES ON:
BRIGHT
COLORS
How do you set colors to overlap
on top of one another and still look
vibrant? Here’s how.
FORGET ABOUT THE
TRANSPARENCY TOOL
The first impulse to make colors
read on top of one another is to
change the transparency. This
just makes work look lighter and
unsaturated.
OVERPRINTING
produces vibrant,
interesting information
that’s clear to read
100% = solid
50% = transparency
OVERPRINT INSTEAD
Simulating the effects of
overprinting helps work stay
vibrant and rich.
50% pastels
Wherever colors overlap,
there is an overlapping
of information
overprint
The green made by changing each
color’s transparency is washed out
and barely legible. The rich green
produced by overprinting is vibrant
and saturated. One can read
clearly the combination of the two
primary colors (aka: two primary
sets of information).
171
COMMUNICATION
AGGREGATING MARKS
AS IN ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS, LINES COMMUNICATE INTENTION.
Crafting a map’s line weight allows for pieces of information to come forward or recede,
for different areas to have focus, or for different parts of a map’s information structure
to communicate differently than others.
Transportation
Circulation of Argentina
City Name
This map is exported
directly from GIS
and shows very little
information hierarchy
City Labels
Population (millions)
Tier 1 City
Tier 2 City
Tier 3 City
City Callout
Guidelines
Country Outlines
Argentina
Railroads
Bus Line
Close Proximity Flights
Formosa
.5M
Domestic Flights
International Flights
Resistencia
.3M
Corrientes
.3M
Posadas
.3M
Reconquista
The same information is
shaped with line weight,
color and typography
.1M
Curuzu Cuatia
.03M
Cordoba
3.3M
Santa Fe
3.2M
San Juan
.7M
Rio Cuarto
.1M
Rosario
1.2M
San Louis
.4M
Junin
.08M
Buenos Aires
2.9M
La Plata
.7M
Santa Rosa
.1M
Mar del Plata
.6M
Neuquen
.6M
Zapala
.03M
Necochea
.06M
Bahia Blanca
.3M
Viedma
.05M
San Carlos de Bariloche
.1M
Esquel
.03M
Comodoro Rivadavia
.2M
Puerto Deseado
.01M
Gobernador Gregores
.002M
Puerto Santa Cruz
.003M
Rio Gallegos
.1M
Rio Grande
.07M
Map by Nicholas Castillo
172 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
MAPS
NOTES ON:
LINES AND
MARKERS
To bring focus to a map, lines need to
have layers of hierarchy. Their weight,
layer sequence and color can impact
the way they are read.
Clusters of points can operate as a
field, making a territory from singular,
discrete elements.
Map by Kayle Langford
CLUSTERS AND ZONES
This map of dams and water hydrography shows how
clusters of dams make a territory. Choosing a cross-style
mapping mark allows for a geography zone to be read
without masking significant map details.
*
173
COORDINATION
HIERARCHY AND DETAIL
COLOR, TOO, COMMUNICATES INFORMATION. Just as with line weights and other mark
techniques, color can enhance the way information is read and understood. Thinking about
color as a tool, rather than a label, strengthens relationships between components.
DISASSOCIATED
INFORMATION
Too many colors and textures
and not enough contrast can
make map information difficult
to read. When each piece of
information is given its own
graphic treatment, the map
becomes visually distracting
and challenging to comprehend.
Background
Feature 1
Vegetation 1
Feature 2
Vegetation 2
Feature 3
City 1
River
Train
City 2
Highway
11 distinct colors
makes it difficult to
read relationships
between elements
174 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
Two sets of complementary
colors—orange and blue,
as well as purple and
green—are too many
MAPS
RELATED SYSTEMS
Key information in the map is
treated with graphic similarity,
bringing different ideas together
through similar colors, patterns
and textures.
Background Fill
Major Rivers
Minor Rivers
City Boundary
The map is made
of a simple fourcolor palette. Line
weights, patterns
and textures give
variation while still
allowing elements to
relate to one another
Metro Counties
Railroads
City Centers
Interstate
175
CONVERSATION
NICHOLAS FELTON
GRAPHIC DESIGNER / NEW YORK, NY
N E W YOR K C I T Y : DI N I NG A N D DR I N K I NG
the map of a year
THE FELTRON
2008 ATLAS
BE
ST
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JEAN GEORGES
F AV O R I T E M U S E U M F O R D R I N K I N G
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SALT LAKE CITY
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FINISH DRIVING
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B E S T F R I E D OY S T E R S
MO S T S P E C TAC U L A R C R A S H
F AV O R I T E L U N C H W I T H D A D
SAUSALITO
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BEST BEACH BEER
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PALAFRUGELL
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AMADOR’S
APPENDIX
REMOVED
VISIT NEW ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: 35,796 MILES
32,843 MILES
32,724 MILES
J E N N & M A RT Y M A R R I E D : 30 , 150 M I L E S
OBAMA
ELECTED
g r a n d t h e f t au t o i v
ja n ua ry m i l e s
|
f e b rua ry m i l e s
|
march miles
|
april miles
NICHOLAS FELTON is a graphic and
information designer who spends much
of his time thinking about data, charts
and our daily routines. He is the author
of several Personal Annual Reports that
weave numerous measurements into a
tapestry of graphs, maps and statistics
that reflect the year’s activities. He is
the co-founder of Daytum.com and
currently a member of the product
design team at Facebook. His work
has been profiled in publications
including the Wall Street Journal,
Wired and Good Magazine and he
has been recognized as one of the 50
most influential designers in America
by Fast Company.
176 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
|
m ay m i l e s
|
june miles
|
j u ly m i l e s
|
au g u s t m i l e s
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
You’re a graphic designer deeply interested
in space. How do you use space as a tool
for developing your work?
|
september miles
|
october miles
|
n ov e m b e r m i l e s
|
scale 1:2
scale 1:2
scale 1:2
SECRET
SERVICE
VISITS
OFFICE
27,534 MILES
TEACH FIRST CLASS: 27,384 MILES
ly c h e e f l av o r
ACCEP T FIRST TEACHING JOB: 27,295 MILES
H E AT H E R & M A R K M A R R I E D : 23 , 711 M I L E S
FIRST ICE
CREAM OF
SUMMER
scale 1:2
scale 1:2
scale 1:2
FIRST FIREFLY OF SUMMER: 19,823 MILES
19,863 MILES
3 1 S T B I R T H D AY : 1 1 , 7 1 1 M I L E S
BEAT GRAND
THEFT AUTO
scale 1:2
scale 1:2
rangers vs. islanders
11,435 MILES
FIRST
HOCKEY
GAME
V IC IOU S J E L L Y F I S H AT TAC K : 15 , 807 M I L E S
SPEAKER FALLS ON BACK: 4,592 MILES
4,658 MILES
R A DIOL A B P R E M I E R AT A NG E L I K A : 4 , 519 M I L E S
M AT T ’ S CONC U S S ION ON S K I T R I P : 2 , 307 M I L E S
at 92 n d s t y
scale 1:2
scale 1:2
scale 1:2
scale 1:2
44 MILES
MICHAEL
POLLAN
LECTURE
december miles
“I spent this many hours at home, how
many hours did you spend at home?”
In this respect, space is a channel for
communicating and connecting with
other people.
NICHOLAS FELTON: One of the things
I look for in my practice are aspects of
behavior that are universally relatable—
space, miles traveled, categories of places
visited, all of these things are undeniable
aspects of people’s behavior. They form
these touch points between me and my
readers. One of these things this project
tries to do is act like a mirror for the reader.
It’s not so much about “I went to the bar
this many times” but rather “I went this
many times, how many did you go?” or
GDA: How do you relate that idea of
location to more contemporary ways of
connecting with others through mobile
devices or other technologies. Is the
future placeless?
NF: Placeless is interesting, it’s pervasive.
For example, Facebook is in as many
spaces as I am. I’ve spent a lot of time
at Facebook thinking about the value of
place. It’s revealing to see a map of all of
MAPS
Distribution
Manhattan
Date and location of encounters.
f i gure 1 .
e nc o u n t e r s /
r e s p o ns e s
m et h o d o l o gy
f i gu r e 2 . l o c at i o n o f n ew yo r k e nc o u n t e r s
Throughout 2009, friends,
ja n
10
h o ng ko ng
pa r k av e n u e w i n t e r
family, co-workers and
acquaintances of Nicholas
Felton were asked to report
on his activities whenever
feb
k i l l i ngt o n
they met.
au st i n
o k l a h om a c i t y b o st o n
pages was compiled from
the responses of these
ap r
t h e n ew
yo r k t i m e s
All data on the following
m ar
participants to a variety of
6
b e l fast
questions concerning their
m ay
New Jersey
sva
encounter.
11
m i l l va l l ey
j un
8
bac k fo rt y
office
j ul
t h e gu t t e r
6
d.c .
belmar
au g
ol ga’s
shebeen
ro b & e l i s e ’s
7
a l ex a n d r i a
sep
ta k a h ac h i
7
o ct
pac i f i c fo u n dat i o n
6
camden
nov
dec
6
7
sa r a h ’s
d.c .
t otal e nc oun t e rs
mo t o
m i l l va l l ey
1,761
4.8
av e r ag e e nc o u n t e r s p e r day
su rv eys c om p l et e d
c umu l at i v e r e s p o ns e r at e
c oun t ri e s i nc lude d
stat e s i nc lu d e d
days w i t h r e p o rt s
contributors
u.s.a., hong kong and northern
ireland
california, maine, massachusetts,
new jersey, new york, oklahoma,
texas, vermont, virginia, plus
washington d.c.
70% of the year
average 2.66 reports per person
Three
zac h ’s
h om e
7
Nine
560
254
Brooklyn
32%
a m a d o r & sa r a’s
210
j o h n & j e n n ’s
the places where you’ve checked in.
When working at Facebook, we realized
that privacy through obscurity has
dissolved. If something is visible in the
system, then you see it, other people see
it. On the other hand, if you don’t want
GDA: You’re crafting information from
a “dataset” formed by your personal
experiences. In your work, you choose to
show this information through maps or
information graphics. Why those means?
Why not photos or text?
of that dynamic. If you have created all
of these check-ins, you have created a
dataset of information that now exists.
You created it. If you don’t want anyone
to know you went to Japan, then don’t
show anyone you went to Japan. Remove
it from your dataset. Or if you want to
share that experience, there’s a platform for
sharing that information. The map becomes
a record of the data about your life.
Nicholas Felton’s Annual Reports
combine different datasets and
are visualized through maps,
diagrams, charts and other
information graphics. (above left)
it to be seen, then you have controls for
hiding. The map was an interesting part
MAPPING INFORMATION
NF: All of these topics are about trying
to deal with your dataset. In any system
you have oldest to newest, largest to
smallest, here to there. How do you
organize and sort this information? In
terms of organizing principles, space
is a fascinating one. I’ve been thinking
about photos a lot lately. For example,
I’m trying to show the whole expanse of
the dataset, instead of just an interesting
corner of it or one discrete piece of it. So
The Feltron 2008 Annual Report
Poster (above right) The Feltron
2009 Annual Report.
177
CONVERSATION
A N AC C O U N T I N G O F T H E Y E A R I N
A N AC C O U N T I N G O F T H E Y E A R I N
A N AC C O U N T I N G O F T H E Y E A R I N
A N AC C O U N T I N G O F T H E Y E A R I N
Subways Taxis
Walking Buses
S U BWAY T R I P S :
R E L AT I V E N U M B E R O F M A N H AT TA N B L O C K S WA L K E D :
A S U RV E Y O F 1 0 9 U N I Q U E RO U T E S
A S U RV E Y O F 7 4 U N I Q U E RO U T E S
F O R E I G N S U BWAY T R I P S :
N YC TA X I T R I P S :
A RO U N D T H E B O RO U G H S O F M A N H AT TA N & B RO O K LY N
F O R E I G N TA X I T R I P S :
JA N
JA PA N & B E I J I N G
M AY
JUN
JUL
AU G
SEP
O C T N OV
M O S T E X P E N S I V E FA R E :
7.4
M 1 5 RO U T E
JA N
FEB
MAR APR
M AY
JUN
JUL
AU G
SEP
O C T N OV
DEC
TAN
N E A R LY T H E D I S TA N C E
5
DEC
JA PA N, C H I N A & N E PA L
AV E R AG E FA R E :
TAN
$ 2 S TA N DA R D FA R E
M I L E S T R AV E L L E D :
MAR APR
R E L AT I V E N U M B E R O F B RO O K LY N B L O C K S WA L K E D :
HAT
MAN
AV E R AG E FA R E :
FEB
M I L E S T R AV E L L E D :
JFK TO HOME
F RO M N YC T O M I A M I , F L
YN
OKL
BRO
YN
OKL
BRO
TA X I R O U T E S
the photography page, I could encompass
the whole dataset by stating the number
S T R E E T S WA L K E D
at your photos as a single chronology.
There’s a new project that’s dealing with
of photos taken: 5,000. I could make a
this problem by taking photos every three
purposeful selection, such as the first one
minutes. But how do you find the meaning
and the last one. Or I could show all of
in this? Photos are very robust, but we
the photos taken at a specific hour. It’s
need to talk about them not just as data
much harder to show just all of the photos
points but as problems of aggregation.
because they are much more information-
For example, you end the day with 1,500
dense. And it would be very difficult to
photos. An obvious aggregate solution is
do on only one page. Now that we have
to make a time lapse of the photos, but
so many more photos, it’s an interesting
that doesn’t relate to print. What are the
problem to try to develop aggregate
other solutions? Long exposure is one
representation tools. How do you show the
technique. When the new MoMA was built,
breadth and depth of your photos? There
they installed a camera that filmed the
are some tools that do this—Facebook and
construction over three or four years.
Instagram use maps that tag your photos
I wonder how technology can fit
so you can view your images through
into these questions. It’s the aggregate
geography. Without that tool, you just look
problems that I’m interested in solving.
178 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
HAT
MAN
561 22 138 13
$1.53 1,075 $9.35 $50
N YC B U S T R I P S :
GDA: You’ve been testing different ways
of representing information and sharing
these data collection methods through
your Annual Reports. How has this project
grown to become a longer project based in
your questions about aggregation?
NF: After I graduated with my Graphic
Design degree from RISD, I worked in New
York for many years, and I was always
making personal projects for my website.
Travel exhibitions, typeface designs. I was
just looking for graphic fodder, for things
that connected with me and connected
with an audience. One year I wanted to do
a retrospective for the end of the year and,
as I started to dig I found places where I
had left behind data that I could extract.
2000–2010
s a n r a fa e l
the 21st centu
1 3 8 l o c at i o n s
socializing
MAPS
cd
1990–1999
the nineties
1920–2010
music
2000–2010
& s a n r a fa e l
s a n r a fa e l
the 21st century
7 3 l o c at i o n s
day s i n e u r o p e
75 items
audio recordings
1 3 8 l o c at i o n s
socializing
p t. r i c h m o n d
loughborough
5
VELLED:
7
san domenico
forest knolls
brussels
12
wyrozeby
10
caersws
land’s end
san domenico
lp
berlin
norwich
va l l e
cd
b Å s ta d
4
4
45
20
7
pa r i s
bolinas
s t r aw b e r r y
cassette
vienna
munich
chalet basque
forest knolls
london
cognac
chalet basqu
53
4
9
HAT
MAN
a l c at r a z
florac
berkel
tuscany
TAN
1920
1935
1950
1965
1980
17
1995
china beach
trips
abroad
jun 14, 1997
67 years,
11 months
a n d 1 0 d ay s
SEVENTEEN
audio
recordings
8 to europe
group
memberships
and
a f f i l i at i o n s
FIVE
148
most
represented
artist
t h e i n t e r n at i o n a l u n i o n
s i e r r a c l u b i n t e r n at i o n a l ,
64 lps, 39 45s, 37 cds
and 8 cassettes
american automobile
a s s o c i at i o n , t h e s m i t h s o n i a n
f av o r i t e
coffee
c o m pa n i o n
graphic
design
lectures
at t e n d e d
last
e m p loy e r
MAY 20, 1997
a t u e s d ay a t 9 : 4 5 a m
sf masonic auditorium
s o u n dt r ac ks
a f fa i r s c o u n c i l
recording
c at e g o r i e s
9 of 23 coffee outings
f av o r i t e
social
activity
most
frequented
l o c at i o n s
malcolm
grear,
at r i s d
oct 20, 1996
LUNCH
most
at t e n d e d
performance
19 unknown
8 4 c a l e n da r e n t r i e s
46 boondocks bar
1991–2010
musicians
heard live
7 jazz vocalist
4 0 m a r i n t h e at e r c o m pa n y
7 rock
36 sfo
4
45 music
2 9 da n c e s
53
THE MARIN SYMPHONY
2 2 p l ay s
19 television
person seen
the most
SEVENTEEN
MARINA
8 slide shows
117 times
black
pa n t h e r s
met
t h e b oys c h u r c h o f h a r l e m ,
d av e b r u b e c k , d r u m m e r s o f
2 4 university high school
2 9 poker
21 times
akbar khan, bobby mcferrin,
3 s pa n i s h g u i ta r
w e s t a f r i c a , t h e g o l d e n g at e
5 a c r o b at s
ONE
3 mimes
bobby seale
most
wat c h e d
tv show
THIRTY-FIVE
l a s t d ay
o p e r a , t h e h u n g a r i a n s tat e
18 london
questionable
genres
1 6 pa r i s
14 san francisco
most
f r e q u e n t ly
at d o m i n i c ’ s
or the
cantina
visits to
the tourist
club
THREE
f e b r u a r y – m ay 1 9 9 6
foreign
language
lessons
3
folk ensemble, ian anderson,
jazz fusion,
l at i n s k a a n d
smooth jazz
123 movies
38 lectures
t h e a f r o c u b a n a l l s ta r s , a l i
4 big band
3 0 v e t. m e m o r i a l a u d i t o r i u m
MILLAR ELEVATOR
38
37 jazz
e n t e r ta i n m e n t
b u e n a v i s ta
so c i a l c lu b ,
gigi, never
o n a s u n d ay ,
and peter
gunn
2 9 classical
s ta r t e d j a n 2 5 , 1 9 9 1
tgifs
at t e n d e d
s t r aw b e r r y
jan 5, 2001
71 years,
6 months
a n d 1 d ay
by george gershwin
9 e d u c at i o n a l
JOHN
1
4
five recordings
recordings
o f r h a p s o dy
i n b lu e
institute and the world
n at u r a l i z e d
as an
american
citizen
o
a
MILES DAVIS
b o l i n a sTHREE
o f e l e va t o r c o n s t r u c t o r s ,
boondocks bar
wa l k s
recorded
j i g u t h u n d e r d r u m s , ko d o
and 1 hike
d r u m m e r s , t h e m a r i n s y m p h o n y,
pac o p e ñ a , t h e p e k i n g o p e r a ,
w ay n e s h o r t e r , w i l l i e n e l s o n
2009–2010
g o l d e n g at e
toll booth
preference
a n d t h e ya m a t o d r u m m e r s
TWO
french and modern russian
lane
6
THE OSCARS
8 times
a
SEP 12, 2
81 years, 2 mo
a n d 8 d ay s o l
14 visits
w e at h e r
sep 12, 2010
3:20 pm
49.8° F AND
larkspur, cal
1995
china beach
I’m a music lover and I’d been using Last.
year’s is going to be. After that it will be ten
FM, a website that had been tracking all of
years and I might finish the project then.
my music listens. I had taken fairly accurate
I have an obsession with keeping dates
calendar records of where I went out to
and times to neat integers. I left Facebook
eat. Photographs were information-rich,
two years to the day that I started. Maybe
too. That first annual report was a project
after these ten years I will compile all of the
that resonated, bloggers picked it up
Annual Reports into a book.
S DAVIS
ngs
and strangers emailed me saying “This is
awesome! I want to make an annual report
of my life!” After that I thought I would
do a print thing, so I wanted to be more
ershwin
deliberate and track for it. The project has
been a symbiotic thing with my audience
and where the internet continues to be
It hasn’t said “We’ve had
b u e n a v i s tencouraging.
a
enough,
stop
now.” At the moment I keep
so c i a l c lu b ,
having
new
ideas—I
know what this year’s
gigi, never
Annual
Report
will
be,
I know what next
o n a s u n d ay ,
PERSONAL NARRATIVES
(Above left) The Feltron 2007
Annual Report; (above right)
The Feltron 2010 Annual Report.
(above far right) detail from the
2010 Report
GDA: How have the reports evolved since
you began them?
jan 5, 2001
NF:7 There
a couple
of evolutions
1 y eare
ar
s,
happening.
The
reports
are now themed
6 months
andathere
is
a
central
thesis
to each one.
n d 1 d ay
2010, for example, was about my father’s
life. In 2011 I condensed those two years
together so there is a visual interplay
between the datasets. Another one is about
enter
and peter
gunn
179
SYMPHONY
person seen
CONVERSATION
sampling methods—different reports.
It’s kind of how I’ve come full-circle. I had
on it, you can set the threshold. You can
Eliminating caring about completeness and
started out by working against some of the
decide if you have a solid or not, or how
just focusing on the momentary stuff. So
computer-generating information tools that
many connections yields a particular scale.
graphically I think they’re getting a little
were hard to interface with, but now that I
It’s interesting to have these dynamic tools
bit esoteric. I picked up Processing in 2009
have some of those technical abilities I’m
now for visual experiments. Before you
and have become more familiar with the
making network graphs, which are not the
were working manually with composition,
code. Before this, all of the collecting was
easiest things to consume. But I’m putting
and that composition is still there, but it’s
by hand, the dataset wasn’t large. So all
my own critique on them and try to make
no longer graphic design techniques.
of it then was about bringing specificity,
information from them that is meaningful.
It’s the intersection of graphics and
typographic rigor to these forms, making
a nicely designed pie chart. Now there’s
so much more data, there’s so many more
people working with it trying to make it
easily consumable.
computer science.
GDA: It’s still curation—no matter what the
tools you have to gather and analyze the
data, you have to design its output. How do
you craft these decisions?
GDA: How do you see data changing?
How is the representation of information
going to change our lives?
NF: You have to know what controls to put
on it. Without these controls, many of
these diagrams are a mess, spaghetti and
meatballs. When you put some controls
NF: I’m not sure if it’s having a
fundamental effect on society. But it’s
definitely a new material that is in society.
Everything is instrumented, or will be
I’ve moved on from making it more
digestible. My focus is still on trying to
make interesting stories and a product
that’s easy to read. But a lot of the forms
that I’m using are a bit harder to approach.
180 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
MAPS
Where are you?
LOCATION
Mark Herold Tasting Room
N E W YO R K C I T Y
T H E B AY A R E A
MANHATTAN
Cowgirl Creamery
MARIN
Facebook NYC
OAKLAND
Mom’s House
Josh’s Studio
Lewis & Ange’s House
Grzywinski+Pons
SF
L Train
The Richardson
Takahachi
J Train
Brooklyn
Apartment
SFO
Car
Facebook
Palo Alto
Apartment
Drew’s Studio
Governors Island
EAST RIVER
BROOKLYN
Garrod Farms
SOUTH BAY
Santa Clara County Firing Range
Ikea
John & Jenn’s House
496
P L AC E S R E P O R T E D
AIRPORTS REPORTED
SFO (× 2 4 ), JFK (× 1 5 ), CLT (× 4 ), PDX (× 3 ),
YVR (× 3 ), MUC (× 3 ), ANC (× 3 ), NRT (× 2 ),
BEG (× 2 ), LAX (× 2 ), MSP (× 2 ), EWR, LHR,
PATK, PVD and SJC
Transportation (× 1 0 4 ), restaurants (× 9 7 ),
streets (× 4 7 ), stores (× 3 5 ), residences (× 3 3 ),
outdoors (× 2 9 ), venues (× 2 6 ), bars (× 1 9 ),
Facebook (× 1 9 ), hotels (× 1 9 ), offices (× 1 8 ),
airports (× 1 6 ), coffee shops (× 8 ), museums
S TAT E S R E P O R T E D
FOURTEEN
Alaska, California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan,
Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North
Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
Virginia, Washington and Washington D.C.
F LY I N G V S
J
F
M
DRIVING
A
M
J
J
FIVE
S
O
N
D
Palo Alto (× 2 1 8 ) and Brooklyn (× 1 0 0 )
1,268
M O S T R E P O R T E D PA LO A LTO R E S TAU R A N T
M O S T F R E Q U E N T LY R E P O R T E D LO C AT I O N
M O N T H W I T H M O S T R E P O R T S AT W O R K
FEBRUARY
FUKI SUSHI
PALO ALTO BEDROOM
Japan, England, Canada, Serbia and Germany
Reported 7 times
Reported 502 times
MOST REPORTED CITIES
N E W YO R K R E S TAU R A N T R E P O R T S
M O S T R E P O R T E D H O M E LO C AT I O N S
Menlo Park
1,285
New York City
1,159
Palo Alto
931
Mill Valley
409
San Francisco
138
Minneapolis
53
Tokyo
49
Belgrade
40
Anchorage
37
London
33
49
DAYS I N C LU D I N G A F L I G H T
A
310
R E P O R T S AT W O R K
0.8% of all places reported
COUNTRIES VISITED
(× 7 ), cinemas (× 5 ), landmarks (× 5 ), delis (× 2 ),
homes (× 2 ), a bank, a bowling alley, a church,
a hospital and a library
103
DAYS W I T H A R E P O R T AT H O M E
R E S TAU R A N T S R E P O R T E D
SIXTEEN
Most frequent flight VX29 JFK – SFO (× 7 )
FORTY
Miller’s Tavern (× 1 2 ), Takahachi Tribeca (× 7 ),
Bozu (× 5 ), Diner (× 4 ), Dokebi (× 4 ), M Shang-
hai (× 3 ), Spice Market (× 3 ), Walter Foods (× 3 ),
BAM cafe (× 2 ), Blaue Gans (× 2 ), DBGB (× 2 ),
Dumont (× 2 ), Eataly Birreria (× 2 ), Fette Sau
(× 2 ), L’asso (× 2 ), Milk Bar Williamsburg (× 2 ),
Parish Hall (× 2 ), Roebling Tea Room (× 2 ),
Takahachi Ave A (× 2 ), Vinegar Hill House (× 2 ),
WD50 (× 2 ), Colonie, Dressler, Dumont Burger,
Fanelli, Five Leaves, Ghenet Brooklyn, Khao
Sarn, La Superior, Les Halles John Street, Lure,
Made Fresh Daily, Marlow and Sons, Nha Toi,
Qoo Robata, Rouge Tomate, Siggy’s Good Food,
Taro, The Good Fork and The Smile
CONFERENCE ROOMS REPORTED
SIXTY-TWO
Option Value (× 3 5 ), The Aquarium (× 1 7 ),
Minesweeper (× 1 4 ), Apathetic Aristotle (× 1 1 ),
Cherries Garcia (× 1 1 ), PC Load Letter (× 9 ),
Canada (× 8 ), Skor Bar (× 8 ), Graph Coloring
(× 7 ), Berried Treasure (× 6 ), DO_NOT_ACCESS_
ME_OR_YOU_WILL_BE_FIRED (× 5 ), IO Error
(× 4 ), It’s Miller Time (× 4 ), Naming Conference
Rooms (× 4 ), Son of Ping and Pong (× 4 ),
26.7% of reports
Americone Dream (× 3 ), Dunh Dunh (× 3 ), Off
Reported 207 times
M O S T R E P O R T E D W O R K LO C AT I O N S
Bedroom
679
Desk
731
Living room
343
Conference room
206
Dining room
107
Co-worker’s desk
97
Bathroom
58
Cafe 18
54
Kitchen
12
Gym
45
Stairs
10
Hallway
34
Stairwell
5
Parking lot
27
Roof
3
Courtyard
Garage
3
Epic Cafe
Courtyard
2
Lounge
AV E R AG E R E P O R T S AT H O M E P E R DAY
22
by One (× 3 ), Trololo (× 3 ), 156 University (× 2 ),
3-Sat (× 2 ), Cartography (× 2 ), Phish Phood
(× 2 ), Pina Pascalata (× 2 ), Thighmaster (× 2 ),
<ballroom>, 0xDeadbeef, Animal, Anonymous,
Be Open, Beaker, Bubblesort, Cognito, Conceivable, Cookie Monster, Eat Lego Star Destroyer,
fail on future=true, Finite, Genius, Holy Hand
Grenade of Antioch, Imagine Whirled Peace,
LISPy Sour, Live From New York, Max Cut, Mew,
Nux, Out of Memory, Pennywise, R-Garita, Ruby
on the Rocks, Plop Plop, Snuggie, Tact, The BeaTTYLs, Traveling Salesman, Vertex Coloring,
Waldorf, Wall-E, XOXO Gossip Girl and Yip Yips
22
20
N E W YO R K V S
B AY A R E A
C O N F E R E N C E R O O M R E P O R T S P E R DAY
FOUR
ABOUT ONE
32.8% of reports
16.2% of work reports
REPORTS IN CAR
185
AV E R AG E T E M P E R AT U R E
4% of reports
Average wind gusts 4 MPH
LIBRARY REPORTED
58.7
C O L D E S T T E M P E R AT U R E
RISD FLEET LIBRARY
14.3°F
Providence, RI — Jun 1 (× 2 )
MUSEUMS REPORTED
SEVEN
Walker Art Center (× 1 2 ), Brooklyn Museum,
Governors Island Building 110, London Science
Museum, MoMA, Point Reyes Information
Center and SF MoMA
SAFEWAY
M O S T R E P O R T E D S TO R E
Middlefield Road, Palo Alto (× 5 )
°F
Brooklyn, NY — Jan 4 at 7:57 AM
H OT T E S T T E M P E R AT U R E
102.2°F
Brooklyn, NY — Jul 7 at 1:42 PM
7,989
H I G H E S T A LT I T U D E
FT
El Dorado National Forest — Aug 25 at 6:13 PM
M O S T C O M M O N W E AT H E R C O N D I T I O N
CLEAR
37.1% of reports
BEST ASIAN FUSION IN A STRIP MALL
DAYS W I T H A H OT E L R E P O R T
R E P O R T S AT A S TA N D I N G D E S K
BOWLING ALLEY REPORTED
LO U D E S T LO C AT I O N
MOKOMANDY
FORTY-SEVEN
SEVENTEEN
BEL MATEO BOWL
THE INDEPENDENT
Sterling, VA — Dec 23 at 8:57 PM
At 19 different hotels
2.3% of desk reports
San Mateo, CA — Nov 5 at 4:58 PM
Chairlift Show — Apr 10 at 10:38 PM
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
PROCESSING
instrumented. You name it, there’s a data
requirement there will be for people to have
source for it. It doesn’t exist now, but
the tools to understand this data. How to do
it’s something that someone is taking
simple mapping, simple graphing, give us
(Above left) The Feltron 2011
advantage of. For example, I don’t have
ways of understanding this information?
Annual Report; (above right)
great access for the dataset for my car, but
by the end of the year I’ll have something
that I can plug into my car and collect
The Feltron 2012 Annual Report.
GDA: How do we empower others to
interface with data?
Graphs are made using the
programming tool Processing.
information about my car, and the places
my car interfaces.
There’s a lot of additional material in the
world and you need tools and techniques
to make sense of it. You have a relationship
to your car, to your phone, to people, to
NF: We need better access, more tools,
more literacy as well. There is the potential
for changing the shape of people’s lives,
the shape of societies. Once you measure
something, you can affect it.
your government. All of these will be open
pathways to you and you have to decide
what you want to do with that data. And
to clamor for opening the relationships
that aren’t currently available. I think the
more pathways we have, the more of a
181
Page Intentionally Left Blank
communication as architecture
signage
OVERVIEW
CLARIFYING EXPERIENCE
SIGNAGE IS THE INTERFACE BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE AND ITS USER.
Whether it be the space of a complicated building, or clarifying the interaction
between the subway and the rider, signage serves to help the user navigate space.
BUILDING 1
Hitchcock Hall
ROOM 245
Hitchcock Hall
MAIN (BUT
HARDLY USED)
ENTRANCE
Hitchcock Hall
ONE COLLEGE, TWO BUILDINGS
The College of Education is located in two
buildings. Because the college has one main
entrance, with two connected buildings,
IN-THE-KNOW
ENTRANCE
Hitchcock Hall
confusion arises between classes hosted in
Room 245. Is it 245 Hitchcock or 245 Blaze?
In addition, retrofitting an older, symmetrical
building with new administrative suites, faculty
offices and computing centers changed the
organization of the interior. How does signage
help to clarify the buildings, spaces and
interior organization?
184 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
DEAN’S OFFICE
Directly off the college’s main
throughfare, the Dean’s Suite
is a single-loaded corridor of
doors indistinguished from any
other Blaze Hall hallway
SIGNAGE
STUDENT SERVICES
BUILDING SIGNAGE
Wing of Blaze Hall that’s
hard to access. As a result,
students have difficulty
finding these offices
This is located near the
“main entrance,” but
not near the entrance
that is frequently used.
ROOM 245
BUILDING 2
Blaze Hall
Blaze Hall
MAIN ENTRANCE
Blaze Hall
EVERYDAY
ENTRANCE
Blaze Hall
185
ORGANIZATION
SIGNAGE SYSTEMS
SIGNAGE IS A GRAPHIC STANDARD FOR NAVIGATION. How you communicate building
information is part of the visual standards that inform architectural space. How the signage
orients and organizes the visitor should be part of the architecture’s intention.
TAYLOR EDUCATION BUILDING
2 ½˝
8"
INSTITUTE FOR
EDUCATIONAL
RESEARCH
3 ⅝" removable panel
2˝
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
TAYLOR
CENTER FOR SCHOOL SAFETY
250
212-220
FACULTY OFFICES
232-237
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
105
⅝"
224
3 ¾"
REHABILITATION COUNSELING
12 1" removable panels
229
17"
SPECIAL EDUCATION
11"
6"
¾" 2" removable
Eric Anderman, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies
TAYLOR
½"
11˝
CHANGING SPACES
The college comprises two distinct
yet connected buildings. To help
clarify the spaces of one building
over another, two color systems
are used. One building is coded
in orange signage while the other
uses blue signage. The contrast
gives visual difference to the two
buildings, while still maintaining
a singular college identity.
186 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
6"
6"
2 ¼" ⅜"
107
MEN
SIGNAGE
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
TAYLOR EDUCATION BUILDING
Eric Anderman, Ph.D.
NOTES ON:
Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies
TAYLOR
107
229
SPECIAL EDUCATION
REHABILITATION COUNSELING
224
CENTER FOR SCHOOL SAFETY
250
212-220
FACULTY OFFICES
232-237
INSTITUTE FOR
EDUCATIONAL
RESEARCH
Signs that contain visual characters
must have a high dark-to-light (or
light-to-dark) contrast between
TAYLOR
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
COLOR
CONTRAST
characters and their background in
105
order for them to be compliant. The
important issue is not a specific color,
but rather the contrast produced
between lightness and darkness.
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
TAYLOR EDUCATION BUILDING
EXIT
INSTITUTE FOR
EDUCATIONAL
RESEARCH
Good contrast
TAYLOR
SPECIAL EDUCATION
229
REHABILITATION COUNSELING
224
CENTER FOR SCHOOL SAFETY
FACULTY OFFICES
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
105
EXIT
250
212-220
232-237
Eric Anderman, Ph.D.
EXIT
Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies
TAYLOR
107
105
EXIT
Not enough
Not great,
but passable
EXIT ?
MEN
EXIT
187
NAVIGATION
SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS
LIKE ARCHITECTURE, SIGNAGE HAS TO ADHERE TO PUBLIC CODES. Having a basic
grasp of these relationships can allow for codes to be followed while allowing room for spatial
invention. Laws vary between states so be sure to consult local regulations.
PERMANENT ROOM SIGNS
Permanent rooms such as restrooms,
exits and rooms numbers all must
comply with code standards.
Character Style:
• Sans serif typeface
• All capital letters
Signage Finish:
• Characters and background
will have a non–glare finish
Character
Width:
55–110% of
character height
Check your local laws regarding
disability codes. Some places
have requirements that are
more strict than these standards
Spacing:
10%–35%
of the height
EXIT
IT
Contrast:
Character Height:
⅝" min–2" max
Braille Placement Below Text:
⅜" min
Braille Diameter: .059" min–.063" max
• Characters and pictograms
must contrast with the
Edge Inset:
⅜" min
background color
Braille Cell Separation:
.395" min–.400" max
Braille Interdot Spacing:
.090"–.100"
(2.3–2.5 mm):
.395” min–.400” max
80"
60"
EXIT
48"
Sign Location
40"
Mount signage adjacent to
the latch-side of the door
Exit Stair
188 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
Individual Office
SIGNAGE
Line Spacing:
⅝" min — 2" max
spacing is 135%
character height
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
TAYLOR HALL
TEMPORARY INFORMATION SIGNS
Building directories, menus or signs that
provide temporary information, such as a
current occupant’s name, only need to adhere
to visual guidelines. Tactile guides are not
required for these signs.
Semi-permanent Spaces:
SPECIAL EDUCATION
229
• Multi-use rooms
REHABILITATION COUNSELING
224
Character Style:
CENTER FOR SCHOOL SAFETY
250
• Offices
• Classrooms
• Sans serif and serif typeface
• Capital, lowercase
FACULTY OFFICES
212-220
232-237
Signage Finish:
• Same as permanent
Contrast:
• Same as permanent
Overhead Signs:
Clearance of at
least 80"
Center Signage:
at 60"
Braille Height:
48" min–60" max
Letters: Cannot
hang below 40"
Administrative Suite
189
NAVIGATION
SURFACES COMMUNICATE
SIGNAGE ISN'T AN ADDITIONAL GRAPHIC, IT IS A WAY OF STRUCTURING SPACE.
How you set up the logic of this piece of paper addresses – want to say something about how
the page structures and organizes content.
AFTER
BREAKING UP THE CORRIDOR
To break up the corridor and further
signify which doors are used for
which purposes, signage extends to
the floor in the form of a simple floor
graphic, further indicating "This door
serves the public."
190 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
BEFORE
SIGNAGE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
CODING DOORS
Some doors serve different functions.
A firedoor that is also a circulation
core is given a different color to
help it read as different from an
office door.
BEFORE
191
SCALE
LARGE-SCALE LEGIBILITY
TYPOGRAPHY HAS DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIPS. Proportions at one scale can look different
at another. When changing scale from print to a building, for example, new issues arise. Paying
attention to these relationships can help text maintain its legibility.
KERNING
Kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between individual
letters, while tracking (letter spacing) adjusts spacing uniformly over
the entire word. In a well-kerned word the two-dimensional blank
spaces between each pair of characters all have similar area.
Av Av
.2
.3
NO KERNING
The edges of the A and V line up
without any overlap. A wide gap
is created between the letters.
KERNING
The edges of the A and V overlap
to form a tighter relationship.
Tracking
Avery Index
Before, no kerning
very
Ave
ry IInde
nd ex
After, with kerning
SAME TRACKING, DIFFERENT KERNING
While tracking between the top and bottom
examples is the same, the kerning on the bottom
demonstrates proportional letter spacing.
TRACKING
Tracking adjusts spacing uniformly over the entire word.
Avery Index
Before, only tracking
Avvery
ery Inde
I ndex
After, tracking and kerning
192 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
WIDE TRACKING,
NO KERNING
As spaces between letters get
larger, it's easier to see uneven
spaces between letters.
WIDE TRACKING,
AND KERNING
Kerning becomes more noticeable,
and significant to legibility, when
letters change scale.
SIGNAGE
Having a hard time
seeing the difference?
Compare the spacing
between the C and the
K, the J and the A
AFTER
BEFORE
KERNING SIGNS
When letters become really large, the spacing between
them become even more critical. To the untrained eye,
kerning is a subtle practice, but makes architectural
signage more graceful and legible. When done well,
you won't even notice proper kerning.
WRONG
RIGHT
TOP DOWN
STRAIGHT ACROSS
LEFT IS RIGHT
It's a common mistake to
design blade signage with
English letters stacked on
top of one another. English
characters should be typeset
as they are read—left to right,
rather than top to bottom.
193
SITE
LANDSCAPE SIGNAGE
ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNAGE IS A MATERIAL AND SPATIAL PROJECT. Developing
navigation sited within the complexity of the world, versus the control of a building, requires
a deep awareness of space and structure.
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Open
FROM A DISTANCE
How does signage operate within the visual
chaos of a busy urban park? Large surfaces
and saturated colors complement the park
setting while remaining legible.
194 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
SIGNAGE
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Open
MATERIAL ICONS
Programmatic spaces are clarified with
activity icons, added well above eye level on
concrete piers. The icons integrate the material
language of the park with its programming.
195
CONVERSATION
ORGANIZATION
OPEN
SCOTT STOWELL, PROPRIETOR / NEW YORK, NY
1
SCOTT STOWELL is the proprietor
of Open, an independent design studio
that creates rewarding experiences
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
In your work, how do graphic design and
architecture intersect?
for people who look, read and
think. Open projects include identity
systems for Bravo and New York
Public Radio, editorial design for Good
magazine and Stanford's d.school,
short films for Jazz at Lincoln Center
and Time magazine, architectural
signage for Brooklyn Bridge Park
and Yale University, and integrated
campaigns for Google and Patagonia.
196 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
in creating rewarding experiences for people.
When architects engage a graphic designer
to do that work, they want to work with
somebody who can make choices that have
SCOTT STOWELL: The simplest answer
is that we sometimes work with architects,
and we know things that they don’t and
they know things that we don't. We
have experience designing signage,
and even within graphic design that's
a highly specialized field. Architects
have to worry about health and safety
issues, and we have signage guidelines
enforced by the Americans with
Disabilities Act. This is all practical stuff,
governed by codes and laws and rules.
In designing signage that works with
architecture, though, I’m always interested
meaning. So the work we like to do always
has some ideas behind it, but I don’t want
people to have to know about those ideas
in order to experience or enjoy the work.
GDA: What were the ideas driving the
signage project you did for the Yale
University Art Gallery?
SS: The work we did for the Yale Art
Gallery was our first signage project. It’s in
a pretty impressive building by Louis Kahn.
Actually, it's the first building he did that
really looks like a "Louis Kahn” building. The
SIGNAGE
2
3
Gallery’s mission is that the place should
stuff needed to have integrity, in the same
be free and open to all. You don’t need to
way Kahn thought about materials in the
just represent them. The room signs are
be affiliated with Yale; you don’t need to
building. So instead of gluing plastic letters
screw-mounted into the building mortar.
reveal the actual processes used, not
pay admission; you can just walk in and
on the front of metal plaques, we had zinc
At first our manufacturer glued sawed-off
visit. Our goal with the signage was to
plates made and processed in an acid bath,
screw heads onto the front of the sign.
fulfill that mission of openness and also
so the letters are integral to the material.
We said, “No. We want those to be the
respect the physical architecture of the
Every room sign is what it looks like: one
screws. Literally, the screws holding it up
Kahn building.
solid piece of metal.
are the screws you see.” This took a while.
The material choices we selected made
Of course this was kind of hard to
the signage some of the most expensive
get made. Originally, we wanted to just
GDA: In your practice, do you often think
work we've ever commissioned. When we
leave the metal as it was when it came
about materiality?
interviewed for the project, we researched
out of the acid bath (we finally had to
tons of other museum signage systems.
paint the surface, but we used a gray
SS: We think about ink on paper. We think
We found out most room signs are made
that matched one Kahn used elsewhere
about pixels on a screen. We think about
out of plastic and stuck on the wall with
in the building). Manufacturers kept trying
metal and stone. What’s the difference?
double-stick tape. But this is a Louis Kahn
to fake it by roughing up cheap metal to
You have a thing to design and you make
building! The signage couldn't be plastic.
look “artsy,” as one of them called it. But
decisions based on what you want to do.
It needed to be made of real stuff, and that
we wanted the material to be real—to
Everything is always a different material,
197
CONVERSATION
ORGANIZATION
4
5
so we don’t see material as an element that
the balancing point: the intersection where
Research Office) to do the signage for the
changes the way we design. Material is
as many different people can relate to the
Friedman Study Center in the Sciences
part of the process like anything else.
work as possible. The Yale signage had to
Library at Brown University. Their project
We're always doing the same design work.
look right, feel right and work right, but it
had a very small budget—they were
We just use different materials.
had to have ideas guiding the design. Ideas
basically replacing the furniture to make
The theories behind Kahn’s work could
help guide design choices. Because when
the place more comfortable for students.
never register to a regular person coming
you're faced with every choice possible,
The Center is open 24 hours a day and
to visit the architecture. They shouldn’t
what’s the most meaningful decision you
is full of spaces where you can work and
have to, anyway! It’s the same with our
can make in that moment?
hang out. It's on the bottom three floors
of a super modern 1960s concrete tower.
signage. How can we enhance the visual
experience of this building? There’s a lot
GDA: Your signage projects always seem
of wayfinding in the world that is just that:
so effortless, so integrated into the spaces
these. It was also already filled with old
“Bathroom this way." I’m sure it looks fine,
they occupy.
signage from the 1960s. So we decided to
embrace that look of the future from the
has nice colors and follows ADA rules, but
what about being part of someone’s visual
experience? The person coming to see the
museum's collection needs to be able to
function in the building, but the signage
should be part of the aesthetic experience
of the entire museum.
In all of our work, I always want to find
198 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
I think every college campus has one of
SS: We try to work with abstract systems
that anyone can understand, but simplicity
isn’t simple to make. With the Yale project,
there were a lot of dead ends along the
way. At the end, the simplicity of the
signage was very hard to get to.
We were invited by ARO (Architecture
past, as seen in movies like 2001.
We wanted to mark the actual
building—to allow the signage to be in
contact with the building materials. We
wanted to tag the building rather than sign
the building. So we came up with the idea
of silkscreening images and text from the
SIGNAGE
7
6
8
MATERIAL INTEGRATION
library collections on the walls. We put out
The silkscreeners only had one shot to
a call to faculty, staff and students asking
do the screening and every time they
them to email us ideas from books in the
were perfect. There was some retouching
1–3: Yale University Art Gallery,
library. The librarians were really into it! We
with paintbrushes, but in general it was a
New Haven, CT
added these images all over the Center.
successful and pretty inexpensive process.
My favorites are in weird places, like
By adding these elements along with the
4–8: Friedman Study Center,
when we would move a filing cabinet, put
regular room signs, we made the idea a
Sciences Library, Brown University,
an image behind it, and then move the
part of the building, not just some signs
Providence, RI
cabinet back. I love knowing that image
in the building.
won’t be discovered until they move the
furniture in a few years. Remember, this
is a place where students work day and
night, pull all-nighters, eat pizza and sleep.
building's vernacular 1960s
GDA: It seems like your work is based in
imaginative ways of integrating into the
environment, but with playful pragmatism.
We wanted to celebrate the culture of the
place—to make the space memorable,
not just functional.
For this project the silkscreeners we
worked with were amazing. The interior
walls of that space are board-formed
4–5: The project expands the
SS: Every choice we make is a design
decision. Under these circumstances, at
this time, with this budget, you make the
best series of choices you can—as long as
you have space in your head to think clearly.
graphic quality.
6–8: Silk-screened images from
the library's holdings reflect the
Center's visual culture.
concrete, so some have wood textures
and others have very smooth surfaces.
199
Page Intentionally Left Blank
communication as architecture
supergraphics
OVERVIEW
WHAT MAKES THEM SUPER?
ORIGINALLY COMPRISED OF A PALETTE OF ARROWS, LINES AND WORDS applied
with paint, contemporary supergraphics engage many new technologies. Supergraphics are a
spatial tool to engage architecture surfaces, be they interior walls, building facades or urban
spaces. When images become this large, they cross the line into architectural surface.
Flower-print facade is
made from porcelain
and steel panels
SUPERGRAPHIC AS DISGUISE
Best Stores, Venturi Scott Brown
Supergraphics are used to disguise the facades of the
big box department store. The graphic has no relation
to programmatic function and instead explores the
aesthetic function of architecture within the rise of
suburban retail development.
BEST Stores
SITE Architects
SUPERGRAPHIC AS IDENTITY
Sint Lucas, Fashion Architecture Taste
Unremarkable existing buildings are given
a lively new identity with a thickened
architectural surface. A “strong, colourful and
unusual new external identity [is developed]
through the addition of decorative screens,
surface treatments and signage.”
202 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
The existing school
is wrapped in a “Pop
Gothic” precast
building facade
SUPERGRAPHICS
The building silhouette
is softened further by
its shipping containerinspired facade pattern
READING LIST:
SUPER
GRAPHICS
TO AVOID
Charles Jencks
The Language of Post-Modern
Architecture Rizzoli (1977)
Robert Venturi, Steven Izenour and
Denise Scott Brown
Learning from Las Vegas:
The Forgotten Symbolism of
Architectural Form MIT Press (1977)
Charles Jencks, Sean Griffiths,
Charles Holland and Sam Jacob
Radical Post-Modernism:
Architectural Design Wiley (2011)
Michael Rock
Multiple Signatures Rizzoli (2013)
John McMorrough
“Blowing the Lid off Paint” in
Hunch 11: Rethinking Representation
Berlage Institut (2006)
Per Mollerup
Wayshowing > Wayfinding:
Basic & Interactive
SUPERGRAPHIC AS CONTEXT
Shipping and Transport College, Neutelings Riedijk
BIS Publishers (2013)
The graphic facade links the building form back to its
location along near the industrial port on the Maas
River, making a robust volume an emblematic icon
for the college by referring to the sculptural harbour
architecture of silos, cranes and walls of stacked
shipping containers. It draws an unbroken industrial
skin over the building form to further emphasize the
maritime character of the building.
203
INTERIORS
CONCEALING THE SURFACE
SUPERGRAPHICS OF THE 1970S explored the relationship between
perception and context. A bright stripe could situate disparate pieces of
architectural detris (radiators, light switches, fire extinguishers) or develop
new spatial constructions by playing with perspective.
As the stripe turns the
corner, it changes form
becoming a swoop to
the ceiling or continuing
down the hall
NEW PERSPECTIVES
William Grover, New Haven
Supergraphics can change the
appearance of deep spaces. In this
project, a long narrow hallway is made
to feel shorter and wider by a slanting
stripe that broadens to near twice its
width at the far end of the hallway.
STRAIGHT IS NOT STRAIGHT
Perspective changes perception.
When straight lines are painted
on walls, they appear smaller
in the distance. To counteract
this phenomena, many interior
supergraphics address or
exaggerate this effect.
Natural perspective
Adjusted perspective
204 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
SUPERGRAPHICS
“Supergraphics is a magnificent device for playing
Illinois Institute of Technology
McCormick Student Center
2x4
with scale. They make a toy out of a room.”
—Charles Moore
SUPERGRAPHIC AS MESSAGE
Illinois Institute of Technology
McCormick Tribune Campus Center, OMA / 2x4
The building graphics embrace the collegiate
experience through an exuberant system of icons
depicting typical and imagined student activities.
Integrated throughout the building in many ways,
the icons themselves form images of IIT’s iconic
architectural figure, Mies van der Rohe.
SUPERGRAPHIC AS DISGUISE
New Haven Office, Charles Moore
The inherent graphic of the radiator extends to the
surrounding architecture, creating a playful context for
the inclusion of necessary infrastructural components.
205
LOGOS
SUPERGRAPHIC AS BRAND
GRAPHICS PROJECT IDENTITY. When scaled to the building facade, text, logos or other
patterns broadcast an abstracted corporate message. Oftentimes the brand projected onto the
building facade is entirely independent of the architecture’s program, serving as a further layer
of corporate identity.
“Billboards are almost all right.”
—Robert Venturi and
Denise Scott Brown
SUPERGRAPHIC AS EFFECT
Ricola Storage Facility, Herzog & de Meuron
The Ricola logo is printed onto glass panels. The brand
appears and disappears depending on light quality. The
logo is integral to the image of the company but bears
no relationship to the building’s program. The facade
was added to the building after the purpose-built
interior had been designed.
SUPERGRAPHIC AS OPTIC
National College Football Hall of Fame,
Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown
The “Bill-Ding-Board” emphasizes communication as
entertainment. The building provides images of football
plays for public consumption, literally acting as a screen to
display a combination of images and data—a first stab at
an architecture for the sake of optics.
206 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
SUPERGRAPHICS
Louis Vuitton, Fifth Avenue, New York City
Louis Vuitton, Hong Kong
SUPER BRAND
Louis Vuitton Stores, various
Hyper-luxury brands explore the relationship between
their logo and the environments they create. Louis
Vuitton Stores expand their brand from their luggage
to their building facade. By super-sizing their brand
Artist Yayoi Kusama’s
swirling polkadot
pattern is an exuberant
layer wrapped over the
steel-structure building
through an ever-changing group of artists and architects,
Louis Vuitton also brands the street where their stores
are located. Fifth Avenue is then branded with whatever
pattern matches the current line of handbags.
207
PRODUCTION
URBAN SPACE GRAPHICS
GRAPHICS DON’T ALWAYS HAVE TO ADHERE TO THE WALL. Graphics located on the
ground are also effective in transforming the character of a space. The urban ground is a place
for graphics to have significant impact as they can direct movement, incorporate infrastructure
and provide edges between programs.
SUPERGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE
Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Roberto Burle Marx
For the hardscape edge of the beach, Burle Marx followed
the distinctive paving patterns of the original walkways,
which were covered in alternating black-and-white waves
composed of small stones cut and laid by hand. This
project demonstrates his ambition to elevate landscape
design to the level of the fine arts.
SUPERGRAPHIC SYMBOL
Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans, Charles Moore
Using fragments of Roman architecture, colonnades and
a fountain in the shape of the Italian peninsula, Piazza
d’Italia was built to honor the Italian American community
in New Orleans. As Moore states, “What could be a more
Italian shape than Italy?”
Classical forms and orders
are playfully executed
in modern materials
208 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
SUPERGRAPHICS
SUPERGRAPHIC GROUND
Franklin’s Footpath, Gene Davis, Philadelphia
Gene Davis’s 414-ft-long painting on the street in front of
the Philadelphia Museum of Art creates a dynamic urban
space leading to the museum. It changes the character of
the urban context by creating a vibrant, graphic ground
plane that leads directly to the art museum.
209
CONVERSATION
PROJECT PROJECTS
PREM KRISHNAMURTHY, PRINCIPAL / NEW YORK, NY
1
PREM KRISHNAMURTHY is a founder
and principal of Project Projects,
a design studio focusing on print,
identity, exhibition and interactive
work with clients in art and
architecture. Project Projects’
clients include the Canadian Centre
for Architecture, Field Operations,
Guggenheim Museum, Harvard GSD,
M+ Museum (Hong Kong), Michael
Van Valkenburgh Associates, The
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Department of Parks & Recreation,
Phaidon, Princeton Architectural Press,
SALT (Istanbul), Steven Holl Architects,
Whitney Museum of American Art,
WORKac and the Yale University
Art Gallery.
210 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS:
How does your practice intersect graphic
design and architecture?
the Associate Art Director for Architecture
magazine and had started his own practice
designing architecture books. Adam and
I started Project Projects with a shared
PREM KRISHNAMURTHY: We never set
out to work specifically with architecture,
but from the beginning of Project Projects
those interests coalesced. Adam Michaels
and I started the studio in 2004. We had
nascent interests in architecture. I had
studied graphic design, photography and
fine art. Even in these other disciplines
I was interested in volume, how people
configured and occupied space.
In retrospect, that has a lot to do
with why I’m interested in architecture,
exhibition design and way-finding. Before
starting Project Projects, Adam worked as
interest in the field.
GDA: Describe further how you see graphic
design as a spatial practice.
PK: I’ve always been interested in how
graphics become real when they are located
in space. There are some people who
really like the way things look when they
are abstractions; I like the way things look
when they’re physical. When you see them
in the context of all the other junk in the
world. There’s so much visual information
in this part of New York, for example, where
SUPERGRAPHICS
2
SCALED CONVERSATIONS
Chinatown meets the Lower East Side. Both
When presenting the identity, we always
of these neighborhoods are expanding so
thought about the different audiences and
there’s an interesting tension between the
constituencies. Local residents had been
1–2: Designs for SALT (Istanbul).
overlaps of multiple languages, cultures and
promised a park for a number of years and
SALT hosts exhibitions, conferences
economic structures. Certain populations
had never seen it materialize. As a site,
and public programs; engages
cannot read Chinese signs so those
Freshkills held a lot of negative connotations
in interdisciplinary research
graphics, in a way, disappear. I’m fascinated
that it was hard for anyone to imagine
projects; and sustains SALT
by how two cultures can share the same
something positive coming out of it. Our
Research, a library and archive of
location but create two entirely different
practice had to think about projecting
recent art, architecture, design,
perceptual areas.
forward: what might this park be in ten or
urbanism, and social and economic
20 years? Who would the audiences be?
histories to make them available
GDA: It’s interesting that you speak about
How do we communicate these potentials
for research and public use.
a density of cultures in an urban context.
to current residents as well as future park
It’s a very civic idea. How has this idea of
users? We had to think of ways to get
civicness influenced your work?
people excited about the future.
PK: Our work for the visual campaign
GDA: I have to imagine the park’s vast scale
and time-frame made it a different type of
for Freshkills Park was entirely civic.
211
CONVERSATION
3
4
project. How did this idea of something
civic landscape. With this project, we
permanence and it changed our sense of
emerging influence your work?
had to shift our relationship to graphic
responsibility. We’re making something not
design to think about things in the third
just for us, but for a city, for communities,
person. Rather than developing a system
that is going to impact people in a lot of
that would look good only today, we had
ways that we can’t always predict. We’re
to reconsider the signage to think about
not sure how people will use the park in
how things make sense for the current as
the future so the signage had to address
well as emerging context. When initially
this uncertainty, too.
PK: This was a really important project for
us because it shifted our way of thinking.
We started working on Freshkills Park in
2006 and it was our largest commission
until then. Prior to that we had designed
a lot of exhibitions, books and websites,
but this was Project Projects’ first signage
program. It was a different scale of signage,
but also a different scale of time. The park
was projected to take 30 or more years to
complete, so we had to consider how to
design a project that would not even exist
for a half-century.
When built, Freshkills Park will be six
times the size of Central Park and will
have an incredible impact on New York’s
212 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
developing typographic systems, we had
to put on a future lens. We didn’t want
GDA: Most of your exhibitions are about
our type choices to look outdated in three
displaying design ideas, not necessarily
years. For example, the Vignellis’ signage
about exhibiting physical artifacts. How
system for the [New York] Subway can go
do you exhibit an idea?
in and out of style, but something about
it is timeless. It might look more or less
PK: One of the problems that exists
contemporary at certain moments, but
in exhibitions about graphic design or
the signage is always iconic.
architecture is how to display the work.
For our practice, it was the first time
we had worked on a project of such
How do you represent the thing that
exists in the world at a different scale?
SUPERGRAPHICS
5
In exhibiting architecture, you don’t have
GDA: How do you represent these design
quite the same relationship to objects as
actions? How do you exhibit agency?
SIGNING IDEAS
3: Signage program for
you do to, say, an exhibition about chairs or
paintings. You don’t have a set of artifacts
PK: I think that can be very difficult. Apart
that are invested with an aura and put
from architects, a lot of visitors aren’t that
them in connection with each other and
engaged or invested in how you represent
4: Into the Open, Parson’s New
create a narrative out of that. These types
information. For example, we designed an
School of Design, New York
of exhibits start with a curatorial premise.
exhibition with Ken Saylor called Into the
We work with curators to not just present
Open. It was the New York Presentation of
5: Actions: What You Can
objects but to actually make other types
the 2008 Venice Biennale US Pavilion so we
Do with the City, Canadian
of objects, make things for the space. The
designed a completely new presentation.
Centre for Architecture
show we designed at the Canadian Centre
Curated by Bill Menking at the Architect’s
for Architecture titled Actions: What You
Newspaper and Aaron Beebe, it was a show
Can Do with the City featured 99 projects;
about different grass roots architectural
all were small-scaled interventions and
practices. The exhibit was located in the
many didn’t have a physical manifestation.
lobby of a new building at Parson’s New
So we designed books, pamphlets, posters
School of Design. New fire code restrictions
and ephemeral objects to accompany the
didn’t allow students to hang posters in
models and photos of the interventions.
the lobby of the newly opened building.
Freshkills Park, 2007
213
CONVERSATION
6
Students could come into the lobby
visitors to interact with the work, touch
and look at curated work, but students
the walls, change the exhibition?
could not hang their own posters. So we
Graphic design has a famous problem of
having presence in that it requires context
and site for it to have meaning. How do you
conflated these ideas. The strategy for the
PK: In different ways, we think about this.
represent an object such as book or poster,
exhibition display became about inviting
For Graphic Design Now in Production, the
for example, that has a design relationship
student comments. We painted all of
[Cooper–Hewitt, National Design Museum]
in the world: How do you take it out of
the walls and furniture in the space with
presented an exhibition that originated at
the complex world and represent it in an
green chalkboard paint, provided a shelf
the Walker Arts Center. The exhibit was
isolated gallery space? I feel like this can be
with chalk and invited students to write
being held off-site on Governor’s Island
accomplished effectively through different
on the walls as they passed between their
while their Manhattan museum space
display techniques. The natural history
classes. As a result the exhibition took on
was being renovated. The temporary
museum, for example, is purely objects and
an entirely different character. People used
exhibition space on Governor’s Island
artifacts that in themselves may not have
the exhibition so much it had to be cleaned
was a raw industrial space. It required
a lot of presence. But they are displayed in
and wiped down every week. The exhibit
expensive remediation simply to meet
a way that reinvests them with an auratic
walls would be filled with people’s writings.
the Smithsonian’s exhibition standards
quality. Exhibition design can have the
It was fascinating because the exhibition
and was smaller than the exhibition space
difficult task of creating presence.
itself enacted something.
at the Walker. The Walker’s space has
At the Governor’s Island show, we
beautiful white-walled galleries and, in that
expanded the exhibition to include a well-
GDA: Do you seek ways to engage directly
environment, graphic design work can be
used hallway leading from the exhibit to
exhibition visitors? Do you typically invite
exhibited as an artwork.
the bathrooms. There are only two public
214 GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTS
SUPERGRAPHICS
7
restrooms on the island, so anyone coming
GDA: What is your favorite part of the
to the island for the day will inevitably
design process?
CONTEXT AND MEANING
6–7: Graphic Design Now in
find themselves, at some point, in this
exhibition hallway. We turned a banal space
PK: For whatever reason, and I cannot tell
Production, Cooper–Hewitt,
into a small preview about the exhibition,
you why, but the programming phase of a
National Design Museum,
using supergraphics and pieces from every
wayfinding project is really fun for me—
Governor’s Island, New York
section of the show. The hallway became a
it just clicks with the systematic part of my
dense space. Anyone waiting in line for the
brain. Figuring out what information people
restroom would interact with the exhibition.
need, which messages go where—that’s an
We put some of the more interactive
innate interest of mine.
pieces in this hallway, too. Ideally someone
When it comes to designing identities,
sees something interesting in this bathroom
I tend to approach them very theoretically.
hallway and they are compelled to walk
I also tend to think about curatorial and
into the museum exhibition—but even if
display with a more theoretical or meta
they don’t, they have been a part of the
objective. But with wayfinding, it’s very
exhibition and engaged with it. And this
direct. I just love to figure out which
is because the exhibition is located in a
messages go where and I like to test these
practical, infrastructural space, albeit
sequences. It’s the conceptual and editorial
an unconventional exhibition space.
part of my brain working in a practical way.
215
Page Intentionally Left Blank
MANY THANKS
CREDITS
2x4 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 205
JANETTE KIM 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141
ALL OF THE ABOVE 138, 139
BRIAN KOEHLER 23, 34, 45, 104
STAN ALLEN ARCHITECTS 88, 89, 108, 109, 110, 111
LISL KOTHEIMER 26, 31, 35, 36, 44
KRISTY BALLIET 79
KAYLE LANGFORD 173
MATTHEW BANTON 31, 104, 105
SCOTT MCLEMORE 27
NICHOLAS CASTILLO 172
MICHAEL ODUM 24, 25, 62, 104, 106, 107
BRANDON CLIFFORD 26, 28, 29, 31, 42
OPEN 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199
DUB STUDIOS 74, 75, 82, 83, 84, 85
PROJECT PROJECTS 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215
AARON FRAZIER 80, 81
MATTHEW STORRIE 30, 35, 37, 43
NICHOLAS FELTON 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181
THUMB 98, 99, 100, 101, 118, 119, 120, 121
FILSON AND ROHRBACHER 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161
URBAN LANDSCAPE LAB 136, 137, 140, 141
BEN FLAUTE 23, 88, 89, 116, 124, 202, 203, 206, 208
BENJAMIN VAN DYKE 66, 67, 68, 69
BRIAN HAULTER 31
CHEYENNE VANDERVOORDE 129, 207, 209
ELIJAH HUGE 78
WBOJ 50, 51, 52, 53
IMPLEMENT 72, 73, 76, 77, 105, 129, 133
JESSIE WILCOX 30
INTERBORO PARTNERS 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101
217
INDEX
book jackets 27
2x4 10-15, 205
Illinois Institute of Technology McCormick Center 12, 13, 14, 205
book organization and pacing 108-9
book sizes 106
Prada Store 10, 12
braille 188
Nike 100 store 15
Brooklyn Bridge Park 194-5
see also Michael Rock
Brown University, Friedman Study Center, Sciences Library 198-9
“110% Juice” 76-7
Bulman, Luke 118-121 see also Thumb
Burle Marx, Roberto 208
A
academic appointments 10, 29
“Actions What You Can Do with the City” 213
Copacabana Beach 208
C
Alberty, Tom 82
Canadian Center for Architecture: “Actions: What You Can Do
All of the Above: Pinterest Headquarters, 138-9
with the City” 213
Allen, Stan: Landform Building 108-11; New Maribor Art Gallery 88-9
captions 77, 81
argument structure 88-9
Castillo, Nicholas 172
Armborst, Tobias 96-101 see also Interboro Partners
“Characters” 83
“Arsenal of Inclusion and Exclusion,” 100-101
Clifford, Brandon 26, 28-9, 31, 42
arrows 127
color 73, 75, 81, 90, 92-4, 127, 144
additive 135
analogous 92-3, 134
B
Balliet, Kristy 79
Figured Block 79
CMYK 135, 104-5
complementary 92-3
compound 92-3
hierarchy 174-5
layering 165, 170
Banton, Matthew 31, 104-5
RGB 135
bar charts 145-6, 148-52
overprinting 171
Barcelona Pavillion 130
secondary 134
baseline grid 60-61
split complements 134
belly band 27
subtractive 135
Best stores 202
tertiary 134-5
bindings 24-7, 107
transparent 171
coil 24-6
triadic 134
metal 24, 39
color wheels 134-5
perfect 24, 27
columns 40 see also grids
plastic 24-5
Columbia University
saddle stitch 25
screw post 25
Graphic Architecture Program 11
Urban Landscape Lab 136-41
tape 25, 27
“Commonplace” 96
to avoid 25
Complexity and Contradiction 124
billboards 206
Bjarke Ingles Group 127, 135
Copacabana Beach 208
INDEX
covers 26-7
design 27
materials, 26-7
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
“Graphic Design Now in Production” 214-15
cropping pages 23
F
Fall Kill Creek Guide 136-7
Fashion Architecture Taste 202
Sam Jacobs, Radical Post-Modernism 203
Sint Lucas 202
Felton, Nicholas 176-81
D
dash types 115
Davis, Gene 209
“Franklin’s Footpath” 209
diagramming 124-31
building form 124-5
design process 126-7
“Figured Block” 79
Filson and Rohrbacher 156-61
Filson, Anne 156-61 see also Filson and Rohrbacher
firms see employers
font 65 also see typeface
Franklin’s Footpath 209
Frazier, Aaron 80-81
Freshkills Park 133, 210-2
full bleeds 23
information 132-3
phenomenon 130-31
relationships 128-9
scale change 129
data types 147
G
gradients 94, 131
Diamani, Robert 84 see also Dub Studios
graduate school 18, 28
digital printing 104
“Graphic Design Now in Production” 214-5
digital portfolios 22
Graf, Doug 125
display type 47
grids 40-5, 72, 110-111 see also page layout
D’Oca, Daniel 96-101 see also Interboro Partners
Grover, William 204
Dub Studios 82-5
gutters 40, 107 see also page layout
“Characters” 83
“The Pink Path” 84-5
“Subhub” 82
“Suburban General Store” 74-5, 83
dye cuts 26
H
“Harborport” 72-3
Haulter, Brian 31
E
Herzog & de Meuron 206
embossing 26
“Holding Pattern” 98-9
employers 18, 29, 59
Holl, Steven 131
Eisenman, Peter 126
Huge, Elijah 78
hatching 127
Ricola Factory 206
“Trajet Museal” 78
hyphens 115
I
Koolhaas, Rem
diagrams 11
“Junk Space” 12
icons 194-5, 205
images
see also OMA
Koehler, Brian 34, 45
organizing 78-9
Kotheimer, Lisl 26, 31, 35, 36, 44
selecting 73
Krishnamurthy, Prem 209-15 see also Project Projects
with photos 95
Kusama, Yayoi 207
Implement
“110% Juice” 76-7
Envisioning 2020 105
“Harborport” 72-3
“Light Industrial Landscape” 129
“Waste Land” 133
including other types of design work 30-31
Interboro Partners 96-101
“Arsenal of Inclusion and Exclusion” 100-101
“Commonplace” 96
“Holding Pattern” 98-9
“Life with Landbanking” 96, 97
information design
flow charts 154-5
hierarchy 90, 167-9
layering 76-7
Kwinter, Sanford 131
L
Landform Building 108-11
landscape graphics 208, 194-5
Langford, Kayle 173
laser cutting 26
leading 114, 116-17
Le Corbusier 134
Lewis, Karen see Implement
“Life with Landbanking” 96, 97
line weight 75, 79, 81, 127, 131, 172
logos 14
Louis Vuitton stores 207
scaling 74
Illinois Institute of Technology McCormick Center 12, 13, 14, 205
Ito, Toyo 128
J
M
m dash 115
map markers 173
margins 40, 58, 62, 107, 112-13
James Corner Field Operations 128, 133
mixing drawing types 80-1
Freshkills Park 133, 210-12
mixing typefaces 64-5
Navy Pier 128
McMorrough, John
Jen, Natasha 50
“Blowing the Lid off Paint” 203
Jencks, Charles
Mollerup, Per
The Language of Post-Modern Architecture 203
Radical Post-Modernism 203
Wayshowing > Wayfinding Basic and Interactive 203
Moore, Charles 205, 208
New Haven office 205
K
Kentner, Jason see Implement
kerning 117, 192
Kim, Janette 136-41
Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans 208
Multiple Signatures, 10, 12, 203
N
see also All of the Above
n dash 115
see also Urban Landscape Lab
National College Football Hall of Fame 206
Navy Pier 128
Neutelings Riedjik 203
Shipping and Transport College 203
INDEX
New Maribor Art Gallery 88-9
pie charts 144, 146, 150-51
New Haven office 205
“The Pink Path” 84-5
Nike 100 store 15
Pinterest Headquarters 138-9
numbers
Piper, Michael 82-5 see also Dub Studios
aligning decimals 153
point size 116, 117
aligning whole numbers 153
portfolio
presenting in tables 152
binding options 24-5
covers 26-7
digital 22
O
grids 40-45
O’Brien Jr, William 50–53 see also WOBJ
pacing 32-3, 39-40
OMA 160, 161
page types 34-40
including other work 30-31
organization of work 28-9
Illinois Institute of Technology McCormick Center 12, 13, 14, 205
page layout 40-41
Prada Store 10, 12
print production 20-22
Seattle Public Library 132
table of contents 34
Open 196-9
typography 46-9
Brooklyn Bridge Park 194-5
Prada Store 10, 12
Brown University, Friedman Study Center, Sciences Library 198-9
printing
Yale University Art Gallery 196-7
color laser 21
orphans 114-15
ink jet 21
organizing work in portfolios 18, 28-9, 32-3
production 20-21
organizing information in resumes 56, 62
offset 104
on-line printing 20
printing press 104
P
Project Projects 209–215
“Actions What You Can Do with the City” Canadian Center
for Architecture 213
Paducha Gaseous Diffusion Plant 156-61
Freshkills Park signage 210-12
page layout 40-41, 72-9
“Graphic Design Now in Production” Cooper Hewitt, National
back edge 41
Design Museum 214-15
flow lines 40
“Into the Open” Parsons New School of Design 213
fore edge 41
SALT Istanbul 209-10
grid modules 41
page head 41
page foot 41
spatial zones 40, 58
see also grids
R
Ricola Storage Facility 206
page orientation 107
Rendgen, Sandra and Julius Weideman Information Graphics 145
page types 33-9, 108-9
rhetorical structures 89
book pages, 34-5, 38-9
Rock, Michael 10–15
introductory pages 36-9
Multiple Signatures 10, 12, 203
project pages, 36–9
see also 2x4
page structure 58-9
Rohrbacher, Gary 158, 159, 161 see also Filson and Rohrbacher
Parson’s New School of Design 213
Ruchala, Frank 82 see also Dub Studios
perspectival shifts 204
Rudolph, Paul 130
Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans 208
S
typography 35, 46-9, 64-65, 77, 91, 114-17, 192-3
baseline grid 60-61
kerning 117, 192
SALT Istanbul 209-10
leading 114, 116-17
sans serif 46
orphans 114-15
Seattle Public Library 132
setting paragraphs 114-15
serif 46
tracking 192
Serpentine Pavillion 128
widows 114-15
Shipping and Transport College 203
see also typefaces
Signage
braille 188
blade 193
character height 188
color contrast 187-8
U
height placement 188
“Underdome” 140-41
material finishes 189
Urban Landscape Lab
on building facades 192-3
Fall Kill Creek Guide 136-7
overhead signs 189
“Underdome” 140-41
permanent rooms 188
see also Janette Kim
semi-permanent rooms 188, 190
temporary rooms 189
see also wayfinding
Sint Lucas 202
Steele, Brett 132
Storrie, Matthew 30, 35, 37, 43
Stowell, Scott 196-9 see also Open
“Subhub” 82
“Suburban General Store” 74-5, 83
V
van der Rohe, Mies 130
Barcelona Pavillion 130
Van Dyke, Benjamin 66-9
Venturi, Robert 124, 125
Complexity and Contradiction 124
see also Venturi Scott Brown
T
Venturi Scott Brown 202, 203, 206
Best stores 202
Learning from Las Vegas 203
table of contents 34
National College Football Hall of Fame 206
text, compacting 90-1, 94
Theodore, Georgeen 96-101 see also Interboro Partners
Thumb 98-101, 118-121
Landform Building 108-11
titles 77
tracking 115, 116, 192
“Trajet Museal” 78
W
WOBJ 50–53
wayfinding 184-5, 190-91
outdoor wayfinding 84, 194-5
Tufte, Edward Visual Explanations 145
typefaces
display type 47
families 64
font 65
mixing 64-5
Per Mollerup Wayshowing > Wayfinding Basic and Interactive 203
widows 114-15
Wigley, Mark 12
Wilcox, Jessie 30
Wong, Dona M. WSJ Guide to Information Graphics 145
sans serif 46
serif 46
too many 34
weights 64
see also typography
Y
Yale University Art Gallery 196-7